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Border guards unlock a crossing between Switzerland and France Keystone / Martial Trezzini On June 15 Switzerland re-opened its borders with many other European states after improvements t...

Switzerland will only stump up cohesion contribution if it no longer feels discriminated against by the EU.(sda-ats) ...

An overwhelming majority of the nearly 100 delegates taking part in the session of the Swiss Abroad Council voted in favour of the two r...

Are Swiss-EU relations finally moving into the right lane?(Keystone) On Wednesday, the Swiss govement once again debated the potential institutional framework agreement between Switzerland and the European Union (EU). We look at the background to this controversial issue and its potential consequences for Switzerland.What's it all about?The EU is clear that participating in its single market requires a consistent implementation and interpretation of the market’s continually developing set of rules. Therefore, Brussels expects that the bilateral agreements between Switzerland and the EU will continue to be adaptedto any potential legal de...

Playing to a vanished audience: Basel's Valentin Stocker celebrates. (Keystone) As the Swiss national team goes from strength to strength in preparing for the World Cup in Russia, we dig into the numbers toexplore the struggles of the domestic league. On the surface, Swiss football is enjoying something of a purple patch. The national side ‘Die Nati’ (unfortunately pronounced ‘Nazi’) has qualified for the fourth World Cup ruing, and will fly to Russia in summer with what’s widely acknowledged as its finest generation in years. The team currently sits eighth in the FIFA world rankings. Meanwhile, domestic powerhouse FC Basel (wiers of the Swiss Super League for the past eight years) qua...

A section of the cathedral's dome showing Gallus taming a wood-bringing bear. (Keystone) After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe was plunged into the Dark Ages. It might have fallen further had it not been for the epic efforts of a band of Irish monks. Take a walk through the vast courtyard of St Gallen Abbey. The stone church towers stretch 68 metres into the sky, clichés of clanging bells sound out, a scent of hot waffle drifts from an old cafe. A few bemused Asian tourists stroll around. It’s difficult to imagine things were ever otherwise. But the history of the Abbey—and of founding father Gallus—is one of constant change. Enzo Farinelli, a Dublin-based Italian scholar, says it...

Claude Nobs plays harmonica on stage with Solomon Burke at the 39th Montreux Jazz Festival in July 2005 (Keystone) It is five years ago today that Claude Nobs, founder of Switzerland’s famous Montreux Jazz Festival, died suddenly at age 76. In this 2013 article, swissinfo.ch reported on his death, his life and the legacy of the man who, in the words of the current Swiss President Alain Berset "helped Switzerland discover jazz". Claude Nobs Founder of Montreux Jazz Festival dies Claude Nobs, the founder and director of the Montreux Jazz Festival, has died. He was 76. Nobs died on Thursday after sustaining injuries from a ... . Neuer Inhalt Horizontal Line subscription...

Protesters against the overtuing of net neutrality laws carry a sign to the Federal Communications Commission headquarters in Washington, DC earlier this month(Keystone) The decision “creates a world in which ‘you must be at least this tall to play’,” says Brian Trammell of the United States Federal Communications Commission’s vote last week to overtu regulations that kept inteet service providers from charging content providers money for better access to their networks.Since the US inteet is no longer required to be “neutral” – or a level playing field for all seeking to use and access it – Trammell foresees that large companies li...

... Print Reuse article See in other languages: 8 See in other languages: 8 Languages: 8 More than 80% of the foreign population living in Switzerland is from another European country. Immigration from Germany, Italy and, to a lesser ...

... Print comment See in other languages: 8 See in other languages: 8 Languages: 8 On April 9, 1917, Lenin and his comrades set off from Zurich main railwaystation. A group of Russians gathered to heckle those on board, angry they had negotiated with the German enemy to secure their passage. In 2017, the Th...

The Swiss rigorously check that people have not spent more than €300 each on goods from France,(Keystone) Alteatively, you can go up an escalator, along a corridor and cross into the French sector where the same multinational car hire companies will offer you a different deal.Swiss regulations insist that hire cars have winter tyres fitted between the autumn and spring and they will also have a “vignette”, paying the aual CHF40 ($40) road tax allowing the car to drive on Switzerland’s motorways. Cars hired from the French side have neither and often differ in specifications, but are generally much cheaper. From the same rental compa...

Gun fans check out new weapons at a stand at the 24thInteational Gun Fair in Lausae(swissinfo.ch) Christian Richert leans forward on a red counter bedecked with rows of gleaming hand guns. Behind him semi-automatic and antique rifles hang from the walls of his busy stand at 24th Inteational Gun Fairexteal link, recently held at the Beaulieu Conference Centre in Lausae.“The Swiss are starting to get fed up with all this,” the Geneva gun dealer tells swissinfo.ch. “In French-speaking Switzerland we are perhaps more fatalistic but I don't think in German-speaking regions people are ready to have their laws dictated to by Brussels.”In S...

A 1992 demonstration in Schwyz against EEA membership.(Keystone) On December 6, 1992, Swiss citizens rejected by a small majority a plan for their country to become a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), a move which would have granted near-full access to the European single market.The decision echoes the Brexit vote in more than one regard. The campaign was fought with ferocious vigour on both sides, and in the aftermath of the vote, the victorious opponents of the initiative, led by Christoph Blocher from the Swiss People’s Party, cast the decision as an issue affecting the very heart of Switzerland’s sovereignty.It wasn’t...

Peter Bodenma, former president of the Swiss Social Democrat Party.(Thomas Egli/Lunax) No to EEA, 25 years on A quarter-century of Switzerland’s special status in Europe Some 25 years before Britons voted to leave the European Union, Swiss people cast their ballot in a similar vote with far-reaching implications. 2 There are 2 comments on this article. See in other languages: 9 + Read the interview with anti...

... Print Reuse article Swiss People's Party politician Christoph Blocher, speaking in Be in 1998(Keystone) But what were the for and against arguments in the final weeks of the campaign, which ended in a “no” vote on December 6, 1992?In this report from th...

... Print Reuse article See in other languages: 8 See in other languages: 8 Languages: 8 Bones near the battlefield of Marignano, Italy: The defeat there marks the birth of Swiss neutrality.(Keys...

(Keystone) Here's a selection of the stories we will be bringing you the week of October 9. (Thomas Ke/swissinfo.ch) MondayEighteen-year-old aspiring actress Runa Wehrli identifies as bisexual and has found acceptance from her family and artistic community. But as she explains as part of ...

A demonstratoris detained by police during a protest rallyin Moscowearlier this year.(Keystone / EPA / Maxim Shipenkov) The automatic exchange of tax information (AIE) between countries is generally seen as an effective way of cracking down on tax cheats. But what if a country uses the data to politically oppress its citizens? It’s a buin...

Wine producers in Lavaux, the spectacular wine-growing region on Lake Geneva, have been enjoying a boost in trade sincethe region onUNESCOWorld Heritage status ten years ago. (RTS/swissinfo.ch) Enotourism, that is tourism whose purpose is the tasting and purchase of wine, is big business on the steep terraced vineyards, a15 kilometrestretch along Lake Geneva covering an area of 840hectares ...

The Pension Reform 2020 package wouldalign the retirement ages of women and men at 65 yearsby 2021. (william87/123RF) The increase in the retirement age for women from 64 to 65 is one of the most controversial issues in the overhaul of the Swiss old age security system, which is due to be put to a national vote on September 24. Swiss women are among the few in Europe who are entitled colle...