The Swiss government has been given more flexibility when it comes to approving the export of war material. Both chambers of parliament have agreed to allow the government to deviate from previous restrictions on such exports in exceptional cases.
Against the opposition of left-wing parties in parliament including the Social Democrats and Greens, a center-right coalition approved an amendment to the War Material Act on Monday. This means a new article (Article 22b) will be added to the law.
According to the new article, the government may in future deviate from the previous licensing criteria for the export of war material abroad in exceptional circumstances. This must also be necessary to safeguard the country’s foreign or security policy interests.
Opponents of this amendment say that two years ago, Parliament deleted Article 22b from the government’s counter-proposal to the popular initiative “Against arms exports to countries at civil war”. This was a decisive factor in the withdrawal of this petition for a referendum. They argue that introducing Article 22b now is therefore undemocratic.
Last year, Switzerland exported a record amount of war material. However, there have been extensive debates about how arms exports, especially in times of war, align with Swiss neutrality and the country’s humanitarian tradition.
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. You can find them here.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Most Read Swiss Abroad
More
The citizenship obstacle course facing spouses of Swiss Abroad
What factors should be taken into account when inheriting Swiss citizenship abroad?
Should there be a limit to the passing on of Swiss citizenship? Or is the current practice too strict and it should still be possible to register after the age of 25?
Swiss government wants mandate to handle drug shortages
This content was published on
The Swiss government wants the power take action in the event of critical medicine shortages in future, rather than cantons and the private sector.
This content was published on
The Bern Commercial Criminal Court has thrown out a fraud case against Postbus due to a "serious deficiency" in police procedures.
Swiss wage protection measures agreed ahead of EU deal
This content was published on
Trade unions and Swiss cantons agree on domestic measures to protect wages, to pave the way for a treaty cementing future ties with the EU.
Swiss commodities trader Glencore faces $1.6bn loss
This content was published on
According to preliminary figures, Swiss commodities trader and mining group Glencore slipped into the red with a $1.6 billion loss in 2024.
Diplomat murder case: defendant to appeal rape conviction
This content was published on
A man acquitted of murdering an Egyptian diplomat in Geneva in 1995, will appeal his conviction for other offences, including rape.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.