Swiss Digital Policy – Review of the Winter Session 2021

The winter session 2021 was once again marked by the Corona policy: Several measures would have expired at the end of the year and had to be extended. In addition, it was decided that the Confederation should again pay for the costs of antigen tests. The Corona measures were also reflected in the 2022 federal budget.

The complete outlook is available in the national languages German and French.

In the 2021 winter session, which runs from 29 November to 17 December, the debate on the 2022 budget will take up a large part. In addition, the resolution of differences on the AHV reform and the start of the important debate on the modernisation of the Federal Law on Occupational Retirement, Survivors’ and Disability Pension Plans (BVG) are likely to make headlines.

The complete outlook is available in the national languages German and French.

Bern/Zurich, 13.10.2021 – The E-ID is an important component in driving Switzerland ahead in digitalisation. digitalswitzerland association therefore welcomes the fact that the Federal Council is quickly revisiting the topic of E-ID and launching the debate on the benefits and requirements of the Swiss E-ID with a public consultation. The consultation will be concluded on 14 October 2021 with a public discussion at a conference.

To the statement (only in German)

To the media release (in German and French)

In the 2021 autumn session, in addition to the Corona policy, the release of the cohesion billion, the corrective initiative (arms exports), the organ donation law and the election of Stefan Blättler as the new federal prosecutor made headlines.

The complete outlook is available in the national languages German and French.

According to tradition, National Councilor Judith Bellaiche, member of the core team of the ePower Parliamentary Group, welcomed numerous representatives from politics, administration and the digital economy to the session event in Bern. The announced topic on the regulation of the Internet promised a knowledge lead on upcoming regulatory topics with high relevance for the societal discourse….

The complete article is available in the national language German and French.

Numerous exciting digital policy issues are on the agenda for the autumn session from 13 September to 1 October. The National Council (NR) and the Council of States (SR) will deal with a total of over 60 items of business relevant to the digital economy.

The complete outlook is available in the national languages German and French.

digitalswitzerland regularly publishes an outlook and review of the sessions of the national parliament. The publications are available in the national languages German and French.

digitalswitzerland provides comprehensive monitoring of digital policy at federal and cantonal level. This is made available exclusively to our members on the monitoring platform politoscope.ch.

Login via politoscope.ch (for members only)

The current labor law does not meet the need for more flexibility and smart self-organization of the working day. This is problematic: Swiss ICT companies must have the possibility  to position themselves as attractive employers.

Publications on political topics are available in the national languages German and French.

digitalswitzerland regularly publishes an outlook and review of the sessions of the national parliament. The publications are available in the national languages German and French.

digitalswitzerland provides comprehensive monitoring of digital policy at federal and cantonal level. This is made available exclusively to our members on the monitoring platform politoscope.ch.

Login via politoscope.ch (for members only)

The extremely clear rejection of the E-ID legislation on 7 March 2021 astonished us and most political observers. The opponents not only unsettled with questions of regulatory and data policy on the E-ID law, they also mobilised the latent digitalisation and data protection fears in the population. The vote was described in various media as a “vote of trust”. It turned out that there was too little trust in this government legislation. Together with the fact that the benefits of an E-ID are still not clear enough, this led to a clear 2/3 rejection of the government legislation.

This means that we are once again at the beginning of a new political debate on whether and how Switzerland will a achieve an electronic identity that is controlled by the state. During the spring session, six identical motions entitled “Trustworthy, State E-ID” have already been submitted by parliamentarians from the FDP, glp, GPS, Mitte, SP and SVP. The motions call on the Federal Council to create a state E-ID and to comply with the principles of “privacy by design”, data economy and decentralised data storage. In addition, the issuing process and the overall operation should be carried out by state authorities. One can be curious about the consultation. In the meantime, private providers of identity solutions are moving forward and creating facts.

Even if digitalswitzerland has already positioned itself as a constructive force in the further process on the Sunday of the vote, it is now primarily the task of the opponents of the e-ID law and of politics to show what a politically and socially acceptable form of an e-ID should look like. We will continue to work on this topic.