On Wednesday September 18th, president Viola Amherd unveiled the Federal Council’s goals for 2025.
“In 2025, the focus will be on bilateral relations with the European Union, social policy, and continuing reforms in the healthcare sector,” the Federal Council announced in a press release.
All these issues are likely to have at least some impact on Switzerland’s population, including foreign residents.
Let’s have a closer look at these priorities.
EU-Swiss relations
After Bern walked out of its negotiations with Brussels in May 2021, and following a nearly three-year ‘cooling off’ period, the two parties resumed their talks in March of 2024.
The currently on-going negotiations aim, according to the European Commission, “at ensuring a level playing field for competition between EU and Swiss companies operating within the EU internal market and guarantee the protection of the rights of EU citizens working in Switzerland, including non-discrimination between citizens of different Member States.”
So if you are a citizen of any European Union state, the outcome of these talks will impact you — hopefully in a positive way.
Social policy
This will relate to the country’s state pension scheme /AHV / AVS), which includes the funding and implementation in 2026 of the 13th pension — a move that will affect both the retired and the still active workforce.
READ ALSO: How much will the 13th pension payment in Switzerland cost you?
Healthcare reforms
This is not a new issue for Switzerland — on the contrary, the government has been trying cut the soaring costs of the health system for years.
The challenge it has is to curb the spending without cutting — or scraping altogether — various benefits currently covered by the obligatory health insurance scheme.
No concrete results that are acceptable to everyone have yet been found, so the Federal Council will continue this task in 2025.
These are the main challenges the government will tackle next year, but it has listed other ‘to-do’ tasks as well
They are:
- To “sustainably secure its prosperity and seize the opportunities offered by digital technology”
- To promote national and intergenerational cohesion
- To ensure security, working towards peace and acting consistently and reliably internationally
- To protect the climate and care for natural resources
Also on next year’s government agenda: to decide whether to further extend the special ‘S’ refugee status for people from Ukraine, which expires in March 2026.
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