Swiss government announces new Vatican embassy

Helvetic presence: a Swiss Guard with Pope Francis in the Vatican. Keystone / Ettore Ferrari

Ties with the Holy See, currently overseen by the Swiss embassy in Slovenia, are to be shifted to a permanent presence in Rome, the government said on Friday.

The new embassy comes in response to an “increase – noted for several years – in diplomatic tasks” between Switzerland and the Holy See, the government wroteExternal link.

It said a full embassy will enable better cooperation on joint foreign policy priorities, especially peacebuilding and sustainable development, as well as more regular dialogue on bilateral relations.

The mission will also be responsible for relations with San Marino and Malta, which have until now been handled by the Swiss embassy in Italy.

The inclusion of Malta, in particular, will “allow Switzerland to monitor developments in the central Mediterranean closely, particularly with regard to migration flows”, the government wrote.

The decision had been reported in the media earlier this year, after talks between Swiss President Guy Parmelin and Pope Francis in the Vatican. It still needs to be discussed by parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

One-sided representation

Diplomatic ties between Switzerland and the Holy See are long-standing if for many years one-sided: while the Vatican has had a representation in Switzerland almost uninterrupted since 1586, the Swiss only established a representation in 1991.

Since then, the diplomatic responsibility for the Holy See has been shuttled around different postings: Bern, Prague, Geneva, Bern again, then Ljubljana.

As for the question of Switzerland’s religious diversity, the government says the new embassy “does not change the Confederation’s relations with the Catholic Church and the Reformed Church”.