Today in Switzerland: A roundup of the latest news on Monday
Two universities launch Master's degree in cross-border studies, shortage of medications worsens, and other news from Switzerland in our Monday roundup.
Switzerland and France create training to manage cross-border issues
Universities of Neuchâtel and Besançon, in neighbouring France, launched a masters’ degree programme, to start in the 2024 academic year, to train specialists in border relations.
Specifically, it will focus on the needs of local Franco-Swiss communities on both sides of the border.
The students will study together at one university and then at the other.
In the long term, the programme may be launched “to go beyond the regional framework, opening up to other border areas as well.”
Study: Burial plots are cheapest in French-speaking part of Switzerland
The country’s official ‘price watchdog,’ Stefan Meierhans, has analysed the cost of being buried and cremated in Switzerland, concluding that best deals are to be found in the country's French regions.
In his report published on Friday, the Price Supervisor (an actual position within the federal government) lists the burial prices charged by various cities, both for local residents as well as for the deceased who were not living in the municipality at the time of death but who chose to be buried there.
Meierhans said that he "struggles to understand the extreme disparities observed between prices collected by the different towns."
For example, for a grave in Bern, a non-resident has to pay 4,700 francs, against 800 francs in Sion (Valais).
Overall, the report concluded that the prices are lowest in French-speaking Switzerland.
READ MORE: Funerals, burials and wills: What you should know about dying in Switzerland
Vital medications are still missing in Switzerland
The country has been experiencing a shortage of drugs for months and the situation is getting worse.
The reason is that factories in China which manufacture active substances for medications sold in Switzerland and Europe have been idle amid the surge of that country’s Covid-19 cases.
Among the medications that are still ‘missing’ in Switzerland are antibiotics, pain killers, and other drugs that the Swiss government deems as vital.
This official site shows which medications continue to be scarce in Switzerland.
Bern’s stance on Eastern European beggars 'stigmatising', politicians say
The city of Bern has urged residents not to give any money to Eastern Europeans begging on the streets, arguing that they are part of organised gangs and victims of human trafficking.
However, some municipal councillors are speaking out against this stance, calling it “racist and stigmatising.”
They have now submitted a motion asking city officials to commission a study to find out whether, and to what extent, human trafficking actually exists among beggars coming to Bern from Eastern Europe.
If this is not the case, the “repeated charges of organised beggar gangs are stigmatising,” the councillors said.
This is not the first time that beggars are making news in Switzerland.
In 2019, the European Court of Human Rights faulted Switzerland for imposing a heavy fine on a Romanian woman who was begging in the streets of Geneva.
The woman had "the right, which is inherent in human dignity, to express her distress and try to meet her needs by begging", the court ruled.
READ MORE: Switzerland condemned by rights court over fine for beggar
If you have any questions about life in Switzerland, ideas for articles or news tips for The Local, please get in touch with us at [email protected]
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Switzerland and France create training to manage cross-border issues
Universities of Neuchâtel and Besançon, in neighbouring France, launched a masters’ degree programme, to start in the 2024 academic year, to train specialists in border relations.
Specifically, it will focus on the needs of local Franco-Swiss communities on both sides of the border.
The students will study together at one university and then at the other.
In the long term, the programme may be launched “to go beyond the regional framework, opening up to other border areas as well.”
Study: Burial plots are cheapest in French-speaking part of Switzerland
The country’s official ‘price watchdog,’ Stefan Meierhans, has analysed the cost of being buried and cremated in Switzerland, concluding that best deals are to be found in the country's French regions.
In his report published on Friday, the Price Supervisor (an actual position within the federal government) lists the burial prices charged by various cities, both for local residents as well as for the deceased who were not living in the municipality at the time of death but who chose to be buried there.
Meierhans said that he "struggles to understand the extreme disparities observed between prices collected by the different towns."
For example, for a grave in Bern, a non-resident has to pay 4,700 francs, against 800 francs in Sion (Valais).
Overall, the report concluded that the prices are lowest in French-speaking Switzerland.
READ MORE: Funerals, burials and wills: What you should know about dying in Switzerland
Vital medications are still missing in Switzerland
The country has been experiencing a shortage of drugs for months and the situation is getting worse.
The reason is that factories in China which manufacture active substances for medications sold in Switzerland and Europe have been idle amid the surge of that country’s Covid-19 cases.
Among the medications that are still ‘missing’ in Switzerland are antibiotics, pain killers, and other drugs that the Swiss government deems as vital.
This official site shows which medications continue to be scarce in Switzerland.
Bern’s stance on Eastern European beggars 'stigmatising', politicians say
The city of Bern has urged residents not to give any money to Eastern Europeans begging on the streets, arguing that they are part of organised gangs and victims of human trafficking.
However, some municipal councillors are speaking out against this stance, calling it “racist and stigmatising.”
They have now submitted a motion asking city officials to commission a study to find out whether, and to what extent, human trafficking actually exists among beggars coming to Bern from Eastern Europe.
If this is not the case, the “repeated charges of organised beggar gangs are stigmatising,” the councillors said.
This is not the first time that beggars are making news in Switzerland.
In 2019, the European Court of Human Rights faulted Switzerland for imposing a heavy fine on a Romanian woman who was begging in the streets of Geneva.
The woman had "the right, which is inherent in human dignity, to express her distress and try to meet her needs by begging", the court ruled.
READ MORE: Switzerland condemned by rights court over fine for beggar
If you have any questions about life in Switzerland, ideas for articles or news tips for The Local, please get in touch with us at [email protected]
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