BERN, Switzerland (AN) — Swiss authorities announced a massive relief package for financially battered international organizations in Geneva.
At a meeting on Friday in the Swiss capital Bern, the Federal Council of seven ministers, which includes the president, approved spending 269 million Swiss francs ($329 million) on an urgent package of measures.
The Swiss Confederation's package includes 21.5 million Swiss francs ($26 million) in immediate aid. The remainder would go toward renovations, including repayments for earlier work, and investment in cloud infrastructure. Swiss Parliament's approval is still needed.
"The measures are a response to the financial difficulties faced by international organizations and the increasing competition between states to host them," the council said, adding that its measures "aim to ease acute funding shortfalls and support structural reforms over the medium term."
Geneva's Grand Council, the parliament for the canton of Geneva, separately approved on Friday a complementary relief plan of 50 million Swiss francs ($61 million), co-funded by the Geneva-based Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, a private family trust that owns the Rolex and Tudor brands.
Geneva State Councilor Nathalie Fontanet said the measures may not compensate for the "attractive offers being made to certain organizations" by other nations, but Geneva has "extremely important assets" that deserve government support.
The Swiss city benefits from "having this ecosystem, having all these skills on site, being able to communicate very easily, the political stability we enjoy in Switzerland, the assurance that we respect human rights," she told Swiss broadcaster RTS' Forum.
Fontanet also cited Switzerland's "reputation for dialogue in favor of peace" while pointing to the high-stakes diplomatic meetings on Friday in Geneva between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and several of his European counterparts a week after Israel attacked Iran over Tehran's nuclear program.
In recent months, nations such as Austria, Germany, Kenya, Qatar and Rwanda offered to host some of the United Nations agencies and help them save money by getting out of high-priced Geneva. U.N. managers also have been asked to identify jobs that could be relocated to less expensive locations as part of the U.N.'s 80-year anniversary's UN80 reforms.
'One of the beating hearts of the multilateral process'
Even before the loss of support for international organizations mainly due to the Trump administration's abrupt suspension of U.S. foreign aid, the Swiss government in Bern said it spent around 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.4 billion) for Geneva-based organizations over the last four years.
In return, Geneva's multilateralism adds twice that – 4 billion Swiss francs ($4.8 billion) – to Switzerland's GDP, the council said, and plays a central role in Swiss foreign policy "and its unique place in global governance."
Switzerland is home to several leading university and research institutions and around 46 international organizations, the council said, including 43 in Geneva, two in Bern and one in Basel, that collectively have 25,000 staff. All but 10 of the U.N.'s 193 member nations have representation in Geneva, with approximately 4,000 staff.
About 4,000 government officials, including heads of state and ministers, travel to Geneva each year to attend more than 3,500 meetings held there. In addition, almost 400 non-governmental organizations are based in Geneva and about 30 international sports federations are based in the Swiss canton of Vaud.
"Geneva is not just a place; it is one of the beating hearts of the multilateral process, where dialogue is transformed into policy, and policy into global solutions," Tatiana Valovaya, the director-general of the U.N. Office at Geneva, told Swiss diplomats last month.
Swiss participation in international organizations is a core part of its identity. Through the organizations, Switzerland engages in global discussions and regularly accepts leadership responsibilities.
This year, Switzerland presides over the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. In 2026, Switzerland will become the first nation to chair the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, for a third time. Switzerland will again contend with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, having last chaired OSCE in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea.
Having two OSCE member nations at war in Europe "severely restricts the organization's room for maneuver," the council said of the geopolitics, but by taking on the chair at a difficult time Switzerland is assuming its share of responsibility for managing Europe's peace and security.
