Senate says yes to the federal budget without a dissenting vote.
Keystone-SDA
The Swiss army will receive an additional CHF530 million ($600 million) in 2025, and no cuts will be made to direct payments for agriculture. This is clear following the Senate’s decisions on the budget. What is controversial is how much will be saved on foreign aid.
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The Senate approved the budget on Monday evening by 42 votes to 0 with one abstention. However, many points in the budget have not yet been finalised. The ball is now back in the House of Representatives’ court. The amount by which development and foreign aid will be cut is controversial.
The Senate wants to reduce spending on bilateral development cooperation and economic cooperation by a total of CHF30 million. The House of Representatives, on the other hand, cut foreign aid by CHF250 million.
+ Proposed Swiss cuts to international aid mean less for the needy
The Senate wants to compensate for the higher expenditure on the army in the 2025 budget with cuts in various areas. The package it has approved totals CHF346 million. This does not resolve the funding issue, as the House of Representatives now has to decide on several points of the cutback concept.
+ Swiss army to face big financial issues in coming years
In addition, the Finance Committee of the Senate wants to rely on income from the OECD minimum tax to finance the army alongside the compensation concept. It wants the government to receive more money from this pot than initially planned and to be able to use it for the army. No decision has yet been made on this motion.
Support for agriculture
Direct payments for agriculture will remain at the current level next year and will not be reduced.
The Senate tacitly followed the House of Representatives’ decision last week. Both chambers thus approved around CHF2.8 billion for direct payments to farms for 2025, CHF42 million more than the government had originally requested.
Both chambers also approved an additional CHF4.8 million for sales promotion, totalling around CHF70.45 million. The Senate also said yes to an additional CHF10 million for vaccines against bluetongue in sheep and cattle.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
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