Germany is not allowed to pass on cheetah ammunition produced in Switzerland to Ukraine.
(Photo: Getty Images; Per-Anders Pettersson)
Zurich The easing of the Swiss export ban on weapons and ammunition to war zones has cleared an important hurdle in Parliament: At the end of last week, a committee of the Council of States, the smaller of the two chambers in the federal parliament, decided by a majority to submit an initiative with which the so-called “non-re-export declarations” to be limited to five years.
Such contract clauses, which are common in armaments deals with Switzerland, had recently prevented, for example, the transfer of ammunition for the Gepard anti-aircraft vehicle to Ukraine, which Germany had imported from the neighboring country.
The background: Switzerland has enshrined its neutrality in the constitution. This is also reflected in the country’s War Material Act, which regulates the export of armaments. Exports of weapons and ammunition to war zones are strictly prohibited.
Countries that import armaments from Switzerland generally undertake not to pass on the weapons or at least to obtain approval from the federal government. This issued a refusal to export requests from Germany for the delivery of cheetah ammunition or Denmark for the transfer of piranha wheeled armored vehicles to the Ukraine.
It was only in October 2021 that a center-left alliance in Switzerland enforced a tightening of the War Material Act, especially for arms exports. As a result, the federal government believes it has little discretion to approve arms deliveries to Ukraine.
More hurdles to loosen
The change now initiated by the liberal Swiss FDP has two advantages: countries like Germany could pass on weapons or ammunition that originate from export transactions more than five years ago to Ukraine without any bureaucratic detours. At the same time, according to initiator Thierry Burkart (FDP), the easing is compatible with the neutrality enshrined in the constitution.
The planned adjustment to the specifications is also limited to two dozen countries, including Germany and many other EU countries, the USA, Canada and Japan.
The federal parliament is debating easing arms exports to Ukraine.
(Photo: imago images/Andreas Haas)
The Council of States was unable to agree on further relaxations, such as blanket permits for other states to pass on Swiss-made weapons and ammunition to Ukraine.
The other hurdles for the Council of States initiative that has now been launched are also high: it has to pass the Grand Chamber, the National Council, and can also be stopped by a popular initiative. In the best-case scenario, observers say Germany could deliver Swiss-made cheetah ammunition to Ukraine by the end of 2023.
Gerhard Pfister, head of the Christian Democratic party “Die Mitte”, is not moving fast enough. At the weekend he repeated his demands in the Blick newspaper for the immediate release of weapons and ammunition for Ukraine. A change in the law, as provided for by the initiative of the Council of States, is not necessary at all.
Popular initiative against sanctions policy
According to Pfister, the constitution allows the government to authorize arms exports if this is necessary to safeguard the country’s interests. “It is in Switzerland’s national interest to support the defense of Ukraine,” the center boss told Blick.
Resistance comes from the right-wing conservative SVP. The automatic adoption of EU sanctions by Switzerland is already going too far. The SVP has therefore been collecting signatures for a “neutrality initiative” since November. A position paper by the SVP states that the initiative is necessary “so that Switzerland’s independence and neutrality are not undermined by an ideological and hypocritical foreign policy”.
Among other things, the proposal of the SVP envisages amending the state constitution in such a way that sanctions against warring states would no longer be possible. Only sanctions decided by the United Nations would then still be implemented by Switzerland. The SVP should soon get the necessary 100,000 signatures. This means that the future of Swiss neutrality will also be the top campaign issue in the upcoming parliamentary elections in October 2023.
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