Source: Switzerland – Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport
Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports
Bern, 16.10.2024 – On Thursday, 17 October, President Viola Amherd met with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda to discuss their countries’ bilateral relations, the negotiations between Switzerland and the EU, the security situation in Europe, migration matters and geopolitical developments. Poland will hold the presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2025.
At the meeting in Warsaw, both sides emphasised the excellent relations between Switzerland and Poland, which are characterised by close political, economic, cultural and scientific ties. Cooperation as part of Switzerland’s second contribution to selected EU member states is also important. With a total of CHF 320.1 million until 2029, Poland will receive the largest cohesion framework credit among the 15 countries benefiting from this second Swiss contribution. The cooperation programme is particularly geared towards socially disadvantaged regions and promotes stability in Europe. A further priority is research at Polish universities. The programme offers an opportunity to intensify contacts and technical cooperation between Swiss and Polish research institutions.
In the current, increasingly unstable geopolitical context, both sides agreed that close partners should maintain good and stable relations. With regard to the bilateral relations between Switzerland and the EU, President Amherd gave an update on the state of the negotiations. She and President Duda also discussed outstanding issues. Ms Amherd emphasised the need for balanced solutions to stabilise and further develop bilateral relations to the mutual benefit of both sides and to gain domestic support in Switzerland and in the EU. Mr Duda, in turn, outlined the priorities of his country’s presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2025.
The discussion on the security situation focused on the war in Ukraine and the Ukraine Mine Action Conference (UMAC2024), which opened in Lausanne on the same day and addresses the importance of mine clearance as part of the recovery of Ukraine. The conference in Lausanne follows the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2022) in Lugano in July 2022 and the Summit on Peace in Ukraine at the Bürgenstock resort in June 2024. The discussion in Warsaw focused on the solidarity of both countries with Ukraine and the steps needed to achieve a just and lasting peace.
Further topics included geopolitical developments, in particular the situation in the Middle East, the state of multilateralism, and Switzerland’s second presidency of the UN Security Council this month. On Friday, Ms Amherd will meet with the presidents of Poland’s parliamentary chambers, Szymon Hołownia and Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska.
NREL Hosts 24th Pyrheliometer Comparisons for North American Region
Participants from the Physical Meteorological Observatory in Davos (PMOD) attended the 24th NREL Pyrheliometer Comparisons (NPC). PMOD maintains the World Radiometric Reference. NREL visits PMOD in Switzerland every five years, and PMOD comes to Golden, Colorado, four out of every five years to participate in NPC. All photos by Gregory Cooper, NREL
Say you are in the market for solar panels for the roof of your home. You are researching the different types, especially noticing the efficiency that they claim. How do you know that you can trust that number?
Or let’s say you want to build an entire solar array. You need a loan from the bank, but they want to know how much energy you think you are going to get from your array to make sure they make a wise investment. How do you know how much energy you are going to get?
The same answer applies to both of these scenarios because what we are talking about is traceability: the ability to trace your measurement back to a standard source that is common to everyone. The person who sold you the solar panels and the bank that agreed to invest in your solar farm both rely on a traceable measurement, and NREL plays a major role in providing just that.
From Sept. 21 to 27, groups of scientists and engineers from around the globe gathered at NREL’s Solar Radiation Research Laboratory (SRRL) on the top of South Table Mountain in Golden, Colorado, for the 24th NREL Pyrheliometer Comparisons (NPC). While Colorado is a destination for many people, NPC’s participants do not just come for the stunning views and the clear skies. As the regional leader, NREL keeps its reference instruments calibrated directly to the World Radiometric Reference and World Infrared Standard Group. Since 1996, NPC has been a gathering place for people from across the globe to calibrate their reference instruments to the world standard.
On the first day of the NPC, participants from Saudi Arabia set up their active cavity radiometers (ACRs) in the morning to begin measurements.
Studying Solar Energy Is Part of What Unites Us
One expert in the field, Tom Stoffel, is a former NREL employee. Tom began working at NREL when it was just beginning as the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) in the late1970s, and he played a major role in establishing NREL as the region’s leader in pyrheliometer comparisons. Tom still comes back to the comparisons every year to share his insights and to join the participants with whom he shares a passion for solar measurement.
“Solar radiation measurements are the basis for understanding Earth’s primary energy source,” Stoffel said. Knowing how much of the sun’s power is available on Earth is crucial for solar and climate research and for the solar industry in general. Since the beginning of time, people have studied the sun and harvested its power for everything from basic needs like heating something to eat and telling time to today’s advanced uses for powering our homes and cars and, moreover, to understand and detect the changes in the Earth’s radiation budget for climate studies.
Measuring the sun’s power remains one of the most difficult-to-define physical measurements. As researchers strive to get more and more precise measurements, they also need to ensure that the measurements used are compliant with international standards. This area of research lies at the origins of NREL’s work when it was once the Solar Energy Research Institute, and it still guides the laboratory’s mission today seeking to transform energy.
A clock runs one hour behind Mountain Daylight Time to align with solar noon, when the sun is at maximum elevation, keeping participants aware of progression throughout the day. The number below the time indicates the current stable irradiance reading.
What Is It Like Attending NPC?
Affectionately referred to as the “sun nerds convention,” NPC serves as a World Meteorological Organization regional comparison for maintaining traceability, hosting participants who seek compliance with the International Organization for Standardization requirements for interlaboratory calibrations. Participants set up their instruments on the top of South Table Mountain and, beginning at sunrise, they start taking solar irradiance measurements in groups of 49 observations at 30-second intervals.
Researchers at the SRRL analyze the data to provide participants with a ratio of their instrument’s measurement to the NREL reference group that allows them to calibrate their instruments to the World Radiometric Reference. Maintaining this traceability to the world standard allows participants to take their instruments back to their organizations and continue doing the important work of solar resource assessment, climate change studies, and atmospheric research with the assurance that their measurements are aligned with the world standard.
As an example, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program personnel James Martin, Jim Stow, and retired Craig Webb participated in this year’s NPC to maintain its traceability of radiometric measurement. This supports the ARM program in closing the gap between the radiative transfer models and solar irradiance measurement.
NPC participants set up and validate data collection to verify that solar alignment is not lost during the measurements. They need precise solar alignment to ensure they are measuring the full solar irradiance (i.e., the full power of the sun).
Collaboration at the Event
After attending this event, participants leave with more than just calibrated instruments. Collaboration and networking are an equally important part for this tight-knit industry to share valuable information about their work across all different industries and in different parts of the world.
Logan Soldo, one participant at this year’s event from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colorado, commented on the value of the opportunity to collaborate.
“Even just sitting here and learning from all of these people who have been around a lot longer than me is valuable,” Soldo said. “I feel like I’m learning so much.”
Charles Robinson from Sandia National Laboratory remarked on how he is grateful for the mentorship he has received in this field. His mentor was mentored by one of the men who was at the very first international comparisons back in the 1960s, and Robinson was still using one of those original instruments at NREL’s comparisons.
Participants from EKO Instruments attended this year’s NPC. EKO manufactures many of the trackers that NREL uses, which orient the ACR to point directly at the sun.
Tom Kirk of Eppley Laboratories said that he enjoyed the opportunity to be in person with his clients who bought Eppley’s instruments and help them with their instruments in a more hands-on way.
Erik Naranen of ISO-CAL North America, “a proud member of the sun nerds convention,” remarked on the value of being together with others in the industry. Many of the participants remarked similarly on the value of hearing from some of the experts in the field and being grateful for the chance to spend so much time with them to share their passion for accurate solar resource measurement.
Future Directions
The future of metrology is bright because of the work being done by NREL and many others in the field. Their goal is to have the most precise measurements possible to ensure that the research is as sound as possible. Measuring the sun’s power is still a difficult task. But when people know their instruments are sound, they can lay a strong foundation to push the envelope of climate and atmospheric research.
More than a dozen ARCs are lined up on the top of South Table Mountain, making simultaneous solar irradiance measurements with one another.
The logistics associated with NPC require support from NREL’s Environment, Safety, Health, and Quality Office; Site Operations; Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness; Power Systems Engineering Center; Shipping and Receiving; DOE’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program; DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies program; and more. Thank you to all the NRELians who pitched in to help advance NREL’s leadership in this area and provide support to an event that improves research outcomes across renewable energy and atmospheric research.
Learn more about NREL’s work in the Solar Radiation Research Laboratory, which includes the Metrology Laboratory. To find out more about attending NREL’s comparisons in 2026 or to learn more about past events, visit NPC’s website.
Source: Switzerland – Federal Administration in English
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs
Lausanne, 17.10.2024 – Address by Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) – Check against delivery
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I’d like to begin by saying, at the end of this day, that my thoughts go out to the Ukrainian people suffering in the midst of this war, to those who have lost a parent, a loved one, a child.
Mine action is not an end in itself. It saves lives and limbs and is a precondition for sustainable development in affected places. In Ukraine, confronted with such a large-scale contamination, it is stage Zero of reconstruction and the recovery process.
In other words: Mine action is anything but a quiet road. And at the end of this high-level day of the conference, I am proud to report that we have paved the way for continued international cooperation and support in this area.
Our shared commitment to humanitarian mine action has brought together high-level representatives from governments, international and regional organizations, the private sector and academia.
Your participation has demonstrated the importance of this collective engagement — not just for Ukraine, but for the global community.
A lot has already been done, with three Recovery Conferences in Lugano, London and Berlin; last year’s International Conference on Demining in Zagreb; and all technical discussions which have led us to Lausanne today.
Throughout the day, we’ve explored key issues that have touched us, provided insights and hopefully brought us a step further. With much work ahead and concrete engagement needed.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Switzerland is actively financing projects in Ukraine that make a real difference on the ground, saving lives by reducing risks for the civilian population.
In the vast territories suspected of mine contamination, we are supporting rapid surveys and efforts to return cleared land to productive civilian use.
Our focus has been particularly strong in the Kharkiv region, which has seen the highest number of mine-related accidents. Here, we partner with the Fondation suisse de déminage FSD, one of the most experienced demining operators in Ukraine.
We will continue this impactful collaboration: last week, my government has decided to allocate an additional 30 million CHF to the FSD so that it can expand its activities in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions until 2027.
Starting in 2025, these efforts will be enhanced by innovative technologies, including the use of detection dogs and Swiss-made demining machines. Moreover, we place great importance on developing local expertise, with the aim of supporting a Ukrainian humanitarian demining NGO to become fully autonomous by 2027.
Switzerland also engages in risk education and in victim assistance programs. We are working to prevent new victims and to assist the survivors who have suffered injuries by mines and explosive remnants of war. Supporting their rehabilitation and reintegration remains central to our mission.
Additionally, Switzerland was one of the first to support the UN initiative to return agricultural land to farmers, an effort that has now received broad international backing. This project is vital to restarting agricultural production in contaminated areas, contributing to both local and global food security.
At the same time, we should not forget the continuous challenges in affected countries around the world and Switzerland will keep up its assistance. Based on the Swiss Action Plan for 2023-2026, we will continue strengthening the norms against mines, supporting mine action on the ground and promoting innovative solutions.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Mine action in Ukraine is done for Ukraine, with Ukraine – and to a large part by Ukraine. Mine action programs should be nationally owned and led, supported by international and national partners.
In Ukraine, the basis for our cooperation and assistance is the recently adopted National Mine Action Strategy and the Operational Plan.
It is now my honor to present to you the outcome document of this Conference: the Lausanne Call for Action.
This document reflects our collective will to take concrete steps. We want to support the implementation of the strategy and address mine contamination in Ukraine and around the world.
The Lausanne Call for Action focuses on the three key pillars: People, Partners, and Progress.
• Under the People pillar, we commit to carrying out safe and high-quality mine action activities and to restore contaminated land to safe and productive use. We will also address the needs of victims and people with disabilities.
• Under Partners, we call to continue international cooperation and to promote sustainable national capacities. The goal is to foster long-term and all-encompassing cooperation aligned with national strategic objectives.
• The pillar Progress underscores the importance to explore new sources of funding. We emphasize the value of exchanging experiences, best practices and lessons learnt and want to develop and use innovative methods and technologies.
Ladies and Gentlemen
This document is not just another declaration; it is a commitment — a call for collective action to restore safety, rebuild lives, and sustain long-term recovery.
Our efforts will remain on the global agenda, with our eyes set on the next Ukraine Mine Action Conference in 2025, which will be hosted in Japan.
I sincerely hope that by then, we’ll be able to talk about both demining and peace in Ukraine.
In closing, I thank you all for your participation, engagement, and dedication. The journey continues tomorrow with technical discussions, and I encourage you all to contribute to those essential conversations.
Thank you.
Address for enquiries
FDFA Communication Federal Palace West Wing CH-3003 Bern, Switzerland Tel. Press service: +41 58 460 55 55 E-mail: kommunikation@eda.admin.ch Twitter: @SwissMFA
Hundreds of parliamentarians, from some 130 countries, gathered at the 149th IPU Assembly in Geneva, have adopted a resolution reaffirming unwavering support for multilateralism through the United Nations system and other global institutions.
Against a backdrop of escalating conflicts around the world, the consequences of climate change and the risk of pandemics, resulting in a multiplication of humanitarian crises, lawmakers emphasized the urgency of a collective response and cooperation at the international level.
The resolution, put forward by the IPU’s founding Members, France and the United Kingdom, along with Germany, the Netherlands and Canada, calls for a “complete rejection of the indiscriminate targeting by armed forces of civilians, wherever they may be, particularly emergency personnel, health and education workers, and medical, education and other public infrastructure”.
The resolution was reinforced by the IPU’s Committee to Promote Respect for International Humanitarian Law, which issued a plea for the international community to pressure the parties to the conflict in Israel, Lebanon, and Gaza, to take action to avert a full-scale war.
The Assembly also provided a space for intensive parliamentary diplomacy, including meetings of the IPU’s various international parliamentary bodies which contribute to peace-building efforts, such as the Task Force for the peaceful resolution of the war in Ukraine and the Committee on Middle East Questions.
Other outcomes on science, technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The global parliamentary also adopted a landmark resolution on The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
The resolution urges parliaments worldwide to swiftly develop and implement robust legal frameworks and policies for the responsible creation, deployment and use of AI technology.
Key demands of the resolution include:
Mitigating risks to democracy, human rights and the rule of law, with a particular focus on the disproportionate impact of AI on women and girls
Legislating against deepfake intimate images and AI-generated content that fuels hate speech or incites violence
Developing tools to verify the origin of online images and content, empowering users to discern authenticity
Reviewing and updating existing legislation to close loopholes exposed by AI advances.
The resolution underscores the need for parliaments to stay ahead of the curve in regulating AI, striking a balance between innovation and the protection of fundamental rights.
IPU Charter on the Ethics of Science and Technology
During the Assembly, the Governing Council adopted a new Charter on the Ethics of Science and Technology.
Drafted by the IPU’s Working Group on Science and Technology, the Charter underscores the critical role of scientific knowledge in parliamentary decision-making and the ethical considerations essential for governing emerging technologies.
Key highlights of the Charter include:
Emphasizing ethical responsibilities in scientific advancements
Advocating for equitable global participation, and addressing gender, social and economic inequalities
Outlining key principles for regulating science and technology, including enacting laws promoting societal values, the preservation of research freedom, international cooperation and sustainability considerations.
The Charter recommends that legislators maintain parliamentary structures for presenting evidence-based information, engage with competent organizations on ethics, develop checklists for scrutinizing legislation and consult civil society.
Geneva Declaration on science and technology
In their final Declaration, legislators expressed resolve to harness and regulate science, technology and innovation (STI) for the benefit of humanity.
The Declaration emphasizes the need to bridge digital divides, protect human rights, and foster international cooperation in STI governance.
Parliamentarians pledged to implement these commitments through legislative, budgetary and oversight actions, striving for an equitable and technologically advanced world.
Background
The 149th IPU Assembly took place from 13-17 October 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland. It was attended by over 630 MPs, including 54 Speakers of Parliament and 36 Deputy Speakers. Around 36% of the MPs were women and some 25% were young MPs under 45.
The 150th IPU Assembly will take place in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from 5-9 April 2025.
The IPU is the global organization of national parliaments. It was founded in 1889 as the first multilateral political organization in the world, encouraging cooperation and dialogue between all nations. Today, the IPU comprises 181 national Member Parliaments and 15 regional parliamentary bodies. It promotes peace, democracy and sustainable development. It helps parliaments become stronger, younger, greener, more innovative and gender-balanced. It also defends the human rights of parliamentarians through a dedicated committee made up of MPs from around the world.
Brendan Shashoua has been appointed Lufthansa Group’s Senior Director Sales – Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Based in Singapore, he leads Lufthansa Group’s sales force across Southeast Asia and the Pacific region.
Born and raised in Switzerland, Brendan Shashoua began his Lufthansa Group career in revenue management at SWISS in 2011. After 2.5 years, he progressed into sales as a Global Key Account Manager with responsibilities for the management of some of Lufthansa Group’s largest corporate customers. In 2018, he began his first team lead position in Sales Services and Groups in Switzerland where he was responsible for development of the inaugural Lufthansa Group Global Sales Services Competence Center.
In July 2021, he assumed the role of Director of Regional Sales Canada with responsibility for the entire Canadian market, including Lufthansa Group’s successful Joint Venture with United Airlines and Air Canada. Brendan Shashoua is a dual citizen of both Switzerland and the United Kingdom and holds an Executive MBA from Zurich University. He is happily married with one son.
About Lufthansa Group
The Lufthansa Group is an aviation group with operations worldwide. With 100,000+ employees, Lufthansa Group generated revenue of €35.4bn in the financial year 2023. Our largest business segment is Passenger Airlines while other key business segments include Logistics and Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO). Other companies and Group functions such as IT companies and Lufthansa Aviation Training form complimentary components of the Group. All airlines and business segments play leading roles in their respective markets.
Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, October 18, 2024/APO Group/ —
5G emerged as a focal point at GITEX GLOBAL 2024 (www.GITEX.com), the world largest tech and startup event, with visitors getting a glimpse of the possibilities of the wireless technology with AI and its role to powering a hyperconnected future through groundbreaking innovations and insightful discussions.
The ‘Intelligent Connectivity’ event saw a combination of thought-provoking conversations and exhibitors displaying their powerful products and services that will revolutionise the world in the coming years. It comes at a time where GSMA projects a seismic shift in connectivity with 1.4 billion devices set to be linked with 5G by 2025, further fueling a USD $1.1 trillion IoT market within a USD $3.9 trillion mobile economy.
The expertly curated programme brought together some of the most influential voices from global enterprises and organisations including Khalid Murshed, Chief Technology & Information Officer at e&, Wang Hui, President, NCE Data Communication Domain at Huawei China and Thomas Lamanauskas, Deputy Secretary General at ITU Switzerland. They were also joined by Roque Lozano, SVP, Network Infrastructure MEA at Nokia, Kazuhiro Gomi, President and CEO of NTT Research and SG Chung, Chief AI Global Officer at SK Telecom.
Away from the stage, the showcase featured a diverse range of impressive technologies from leading exhibitors, Huawei, e&, Nokia, China Telecom, Ericsson, Cisco, and Beyon among them. These industry giants presented cutting-edge solutions, highlighting next-generation 5G applications with their participation underscoring GITEX GLOBAL’s role as a key platform for exploring the future of connectivity and digital transformation.
A glimpse into a 5G-advanced powered AI future
With 5G and AI on a verge to catalyse a paradigm shift in the telecommunications landscape, Khalid Murshed Chief Technology & Information Officer of e&, one of the largest telecommunications operators in the Middle East and North Africa region, explained the transformative impact of network capabilities.
He said: “5G and 5G advanced serve as a platform for everyone to come in to innovate with applications that can drive demand for the network to be enhanced further and further.”
“We have to build a network with the capabilities and then fit in the AI applications and this is what we’re doing hand-in-hand. We’re not just building a network for the sake of technology leadership. It’s a bilateral game by all means and we are building them to enable new cases while today we have live networks and private 5G.”
Another leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices, Huawei identifies several key technologies as the backbone of its solutions towards facilitating an intelligent future. 5G-Advanced (5G-A) remains vital to supporting rapid and low-latency communication – critical for building advanced applications, in addition to big, unified data, AI, and cloud computing.
AI and 5G fuelling the future of autonomous vehicles
The future of mobility and how autonomous vehicles can benefit from 5G was another highlight. Speaking in a panel, Siyuan Liu, Head of IoT Partnership & Strategy, Greater China, at China Unicom Global, said the company is accelerating its efforts into the AI and vehicle connectivity industries with 5G playing a central role.
She highlighted that 5G is vital for the growth of autonomous vehicles, reshaping society and helping make accurate decisions – all of which can enhance the efficiency of transportation and safety.
Large Language Models (LLMs) are disrupting industries all over the world and the telecommunications sector is no different. Wang Hui, President of Huawei NCE Data Communication Domain, highlighted that AI applications are being leveraged extensively in China’s autonomous vehicles and in AI health services.
Unleashing powerful innovations – superpower agent and all-electric supercar
Thousands of visitors were introduced to the most disruptive products and services powered by 5G in the most anticipated exhibition which attracted the leading tech enterprises and solution providers in telecoms, networks, and infrastructure. Attendees were not short of innovation options with game-changing partnerships and launches unveiled during the event.
e& announced a collaboration with Vodafone Business IoT to use the company’s Global SIM+ eSIM solution to provide in-vehicle connectivity and enhanced digital services for Mercedes-Benz AG drivers in the UAE. The service will be commercially available in the first half of 2025.
The company also displayed the Nissan Hyper-Force, an all-electric high-performance supercar, connected through e& UAE 5G SIM cards delivering the ultimate in-driving experience, and launched their new human-digital advisors, combining hologram technology and AI to cater to the diverse cultural nuances of Telecom customers in the UAE.
At Avaya’s stand, visitors saw how the company is creating superpower agents, powered by AI, showcasing new capabilities which can assist individuals to make scalable decisions that help businesses grow.
GITEX GLOBAL is seamlessly connecting the world’s largest network of tech events with GITEX EUROPE Berlin, GITEX ASIA Singapore, GITEX AFRICA Morocco, and GITEX Nigeria, all part of its portfolio. These events are fostering collaboration and driving innovation to shape the tech landscape of tomorrow.
Source: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe – OSCE
Headline: OSCE Presence organizes study visit on out-of-country voting for Albania’s Central Election Commission
From 14 to 17 October 2024, a delegation from Albania’s Central Election Commission (CEC), including representatives from the Regulatory Commission and the technical staff, conducted a study visit to Sarajevo, focused on the administration of the out-of-country voting. The visit – organized by the OSCE Presence – comes at a crucial time for Albania, as the CEC is drafting secondary legislation to facilitate the participation of Albanian citizens living abroad in the 2025 parliamentary elections.
The Albanian delegation met with representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Central Election Commission, officials overseeing the election counting process, and representatives of the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the meetings, participants discussed the rules and procedures for out-of-country voting, focusing on voter registration for citizens living abroad, the preparation of voter lists, voting procedures, tabulation of results, and the use of new technology. The Albanian officials were introduced to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s nearly three decades of experience in implementing out-of-country voting, including challenges faced and the solutions developed over the years. Special emphasis was placed on the recent local elections, where measures were taken to enhance the integrity and inclusiveness of voting from abroad.
The OSCE Presence in Albania organized the visit as part of its “Support to electoral reform and processes in Albania” project funded by Sweden, Switzerland, the U.S. Mission to the OSCE and Poland.
Source: Switzerland – Department of Foreign Affairs in English
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs
Bern, 18.10.2024 – On 21 October 2024, Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis will chair a UN Security Council meeting on the impact of scientific developments on international peace and security. Rapid advances in new technologies bring great opportunities, but also risks, which need to be identified early to facilitate appropriate responses. ‘Building sustainable peace’ is one of Switzerland’s priorities for its two-year Security Council membership (2023–24).
Under the UN Charter, the Security Council is tasked with maintaining international peace and security. Next Monday, the Security Council, chaired by Mr Cassis, will explore how scientific knowledge and new technologies can be deployed to prevent conflicts. In view of the rapid advances in research, the Security Council must be able to anticipate scientific developments that could pose a risk to peace and security in the world of tomorrow.
Opportunities and risks of new technologies for peace and security Scientific and technological advances bring both opportunities and risks for international peace and security, neurotechnology being one such example. Neurotechnology could lead to new methods of treatment for traumatised war victims or people injured by landmines. However, there is also a risk that neurotechnology may be used to enhance the performance of military personnel, potentially affecting warfare.
Scientific actors have already presented findings to assist the Council, including the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA) and other organisations based in International Geneva, which are working to ensure that scientific developments and new technologies are used for the benefit of humanity. On 26 August 2024, Security Council members met Geneva-based organisations to discuss data, science and innovation in relation to conflict prevention and security.
Switzerland is chairing the Security Council this October and in that capacity has added the topic of ‘the impact of scientific developments on peace and security’ to the agenda. A scientist and experts from International Geneva have been invited to brief the Council at its meeting on 21 October. Key topic for Switzerland on the UN Security Council In briefing the Security Council, Switzerland is reaffirming its priority of ‘building sustainable peace’. When Switzerland last served as Council president in May 2023, Mr Cassis underlined, while in New York, the importance of mutual trust for the benefit of peace and security, emphasising the crucial role of science in preventing conflicts.
Mr Cassis will return to New York on 29 October to chair a ministerial Security Council debate on the Middle East.
Address for enquiries
FDFA Communication Federal Palace West Wing CH-3003 Bern, Switzerland Tel. Press service: +41 58 460 55 55 E-mail: kommunikation@eda.admin.ch Twitter: @SwissMFA
Source: Switzerland – Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport
Armasuisse
Bern, 18.10.2024 – After the member states of the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) agreed to Switzerland’s application for admission, Chief of Armament Urs Loher signed the MoU and the unilateral declaration of accession by Switzerland on 17 October 2024. Switzerland will thus become the 15th member of the ESSI.
On 10 April 2024, the Federal Council agreed to accession to the ESSI and authorised the DDPS to sign the ESSI Cooperative Procurement Framework Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as well as the additional unilateral declaration of accession by Switzerland. After the Foreign Policy and the Security Policy Committees also agreed to the matter, the DDPS initiated the accession process on 8 July 2024 with the signing of the application for membership by Chief of Armament Urs Loher. The member states of the ESSI agreed unconditionally to Switzerland’s accession in a subsequent consultation. Chief of Armament Urs Loher thereupon signed the MoU and the additional unilateral declaration of accession by Switzerland on 17 October 2024.
MoU as the basis for programme agreements
With its participation in the ESSI, Switzerland is increasing international opportunities for cooperation: ESSI enables better coordination of procurement projects, training and logistical aspects in the area of ground-based air defence (GBAD). The general provisions are defined in the MoU, according to which the member states carry out the projects and programmes for the cooperative procurement of GBAD systems as part of the ESSI and can exchange ideas on the opportunities in other areas of cooperation. As a participant state of the ESSI, Switzerland can now conclude separate programme agreements for individual projects and programmes as part of the MoU. The initial focus is on medium-range ground-based air defence. Attractive opportunities for cooperation will be available in the future in the areas of shorter-range and longer-range air defence.
ESSI is compatible with Swiss neutrality
Signing the declaration of accession to the MoU does not lead to any obligations. Even after signing, Switzerland will decide freely where and to what extent it will participate in the ESSI and which ground-based systems it will procure. As previously, when signing the Memorandum of Understanding in July 2023, in which Switzerland and Austria presented their reservations under neutrality law in an additional declaration, Switzerland also additionally set out its reservations under neutrality law in a public unilateral declaration of accession regarding the signing of the MoU. This refers in particular to the suspension clause of the MoU which enables Switzerland to withdraw from the cooperation due to its neutrality, should a member of the initiative become party to an international armed conflict.
Address for enquiries
Kaj-Gunnar Sievert Head of Communications armasuisse +41 58 464 62 47
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
GAD has shared information with European counterparts on our role supporting Scottish and UK governments in their management of public service pension provision.
Credit: Unsplash
The Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) has shared insights into how we can help with various challenges facing the UK public sector pensions.
Actuaries at GAD presented at the European Association of Public Sector Pension Institutions (EAPSPI) event, hosted by the Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) in Edinburgh.
EAPSPI is a network of European organisations involved in public sector pensions. It provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, best practices and policy developments across various countries.
Pension experts, policymakers, and stakeholders discussed issues around:
pension provision
reform
management
Expertise and insights
Delegates heard from GAD about insights into the actuarial valuation and cost control process for UK public service pension schemes.
Attendees included representatives from various pension systems across Europe, allowing for a broad and comparative discussion on how different regions manage pension provision.
GAD actuaries Greg Donaldson and Martin Smith presented detailed analyses of the cost control mechanism in place in the UK. This aims to maintain a fair balance of risk between the taxpayer and members of the schemes.
Credit: Shutterstock
UK and European comparisons
One of the key themes of the event was comparing pension provision across different regions including the UK, Slovenia, Germany, Finland, Switzerland and Belgium.
The event offered a unique opportunity to draw comparisons between these diverse systems, exploring how various countries address challenges such as:
pension adequacy
sustainability
demographic changes
Evolving challenges
Reflecting on the event, Greg Donaldson commented: “We were delighted to be invited by SPPA to attend this event. We shared information on GAD’s supporting role to both the Scottish and UK governments in their management of public service pension provision.
“It was an excellent opportunity to engage with colleagues from across Europe and discuss the various ways in which pension schemes are adapting to evolving challenges.
“The event facilitated the exchange of ideas and opinions. It’s clear that despite the differences in pension systems across Europe, there are many common themes and shared experiences.”
Martin Smith added: “It was interesting learning about the issues facing other European countries in terms of public sector pension provision and discussing how each were analysing and approaching such issues. The audience were very knowledgeable and were engaged with the sessions presented.”
NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Vimeo (NASDAQ: VMEO), the world’s most innovative video platform, is proud to announce its new partnership with the European Film Academy to celebrate the diversity and layered richness of European filmmaking.
This exciting collaboration builds upon both organizations’ shared mission to celebrate creators as they educate, entertain and inspire audiences worldwide. As part of the partnership, the European Film Academy will provide a new destination for European audiences to discover extraordinary films and filmmakers, including some Vimeo Staff Picks content, on its website. Vimeo will also serve as the exclusive title sponsor of the European Short Film category at the European Film Awards this December, underscoring its dedication to supporting emerging talent and celebrating exceptional creativity within the European film community. The category will be renamed “EUROPEAN SHORT FILM – Prix Vimeo.”
“We are deeply honored to collaborate with the European Film Academy to celebrate the visionary European filmmakers who are shaping the future of cinema,” said Philip Moyer, CEO of Vimeo. “Europe has been an authentic soul for storytelling for centuries, and the European Short Film Awards is one of the most respected showcases for exceptional new talent within the European film community. Vimeo is committed to supporting European filmmakers with tools, and visibility. We are proud to support the European Film Awards’ short film competition with the EUROPEAN SHORT FILM – Prix Vimeo award, as the organization recognizes and inspires new generations of European filmmakers.”
The European Film Academy is a long standing customer, using Vimeo’s OTT service to deliver video-on-demand to its members. Vimeo also hosts its European Film Club platform. This expanded partnership introduces exciting new avenues for creative expression and recognition. The European Film Awards’ website will now showcase its weekly selection of European Film Award-nominated short films and Vimeo Staff Picks. This creates an opportunity to celebrate short films all year long and will provide film enthusiasts access to an ever evolving collection of exceptional content.
Vimeo will also lend its support to the prestigious European short film category of the European Film Awards, taking place on December 7, 2024 in Lucerne, Switzerland.
“This expanded partnership with Vimeo marks exciting new steps for the European Film Academy,” said Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and Director of the European Film Academy. “Together, we can amplify the voices of some of the world’s most talented filmmakers and provide them with an even greater platform for their innovative storytelling to flourish. We are happy to join forces and are particularly thrilled to welcome Vimeo “Staff Picks” to our Awards’ website, offering our members and film enthusiasts a curated selection of exceptional films from the Vimeo community.”
Vimeo (NASDAQ: VMEO) is the world’s most innovative video experience platform. We enable anyone to create high-quality video experiences to better connect and bring ideas to life. We proudly serve our community of millions of users – from creative storytellers to globally distributed teams at the world’s largest companies – whose videos receive billions of views each month. Learn more at http://www.vimeo.com.
About the European Film Academy
The European Film Academy is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and promoting European cinema. Founded in 1988, the Academy seeks to support and connect its 5,000 members and celebrates and promotes their work. Its aims are to share knowledge and to educate audiences of all ages about European cinema. Positioning itself as a leading organisation and facilitating crucial debates within the industry, the Academy strives to unite everyone who loves European cinema, culminating annually in the Month of European Film and the European Film Awards, by including European film heritage in its portfolio and by expanding its focus on young audiences through the European Film Club. Learn more at http://www.europeanfilmacademy.org.
Source: Switzerland – Department of Justice and Police
The Federal CouncilBern, 16.10.2024 – At its meeting on 16 November, the Federal Council appointed Vincenzo Mascioli as the new State Secretary for Migration. Vincenzo Mascioli is currently Vice Director of the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). He will take up the post on 1 January 2025, succeeding Christine Schraner Burgener, who is moving to the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA).
Vincenzo Mascioli, who is 54, has been working in the Federal Administration since 2005, initially as a research assistant for the Control Committee of the Federal Assembly, and between 2007 and 2010 as an advisor on Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger’s personal staff at the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC). From 1 November 2011, Vincenzo Mascioli worked as the personal assistant to Federal Councillor Simonetta Sommaruga in the Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP), where he was also responsible for the migration dossier and in particular the reform of the Asylum Act, which was adopted by a clear majority at the popular vote in 2016.
At the beginning of 2017, he was appointed Vice Director of SEM, where he took charge of the International Affairs Directorate, which includes the Returns, International Cooperation and European Cooperation Divisions. Switzerland is currently one of the leading European states in terms of cooperation with the countries of origin of asylum seekers. In addition, Switzerland’s consistent return policy is internationally recognised. Vincenzo Mascioli also served as Vice Director of SEM for several years under Federal Councillor Karin Keller-Sutter and for one year under Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider.
Before joining the Federal Administration, he worked for a number of years as an editor at a publishing house and as a lecturer at Zurich University of Teacher Education (PH Zurich) after graduating from the University of Zurich with a degree in education.
Migration expert with extensive management experience at SEM
Vincenzo Mascioli is as familiar with the international dimension of migration as he is with Swiss domestic policy. He is an expert in migration issues and, in addition to proven leadership skills, brings with him strong social skills, extensive diplomatic and political knowledge, and strong communication and negotiation skills. The Federal Council is confident that he can credibly represent SEM at home and abroad.
As State Secretary for Migration, Vincenzo Mascioli heads an administrative unit with around 1,300 employees. He is responsible for developing strategies and implementing and further developing Switzerland’s asylum, immigration and integration policy, as well as its foreign policy on migration. His tasks include liaising with Parliament, cantonal, communal and other federal authorities, non-governmental organisations in the field of migration, international organisations and foreign counterparts.
State Secretary Christine Schraner Burgener is to step down as head of SEM at the end of the year at her own request to take up a new role at the FDFA. She took over as state secretary on 1 January 2022. During her time in office, Switzerland has had to respond to the largest refugee movement since the Second World War as a result of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. At the same time, SEM has been confronted with a large number of new asylum applications in recent years.
The Federal Council thanks Ms Schraner Burgener for her services.
Address for enquiries
GS-FDJP Communications Services, T +41 58 462 18 18, info@gs-ejpd.admin.ch
Publisher
The Federal Councilhttps://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.htmlFederal Department of Justice and Policehttp://www.ejpd.admin.chState Secretariat for Migrationhttps://www.sem.admin.ch/sem/en/home.html
Atos launches its Experience Operations Center in partnership with Nexthink to empower digital workplace performance
Experience Operations Center leverages proactive, AI-driven efficiencies to drive new levels of productivity and employee satisfaction
Boston, United States and Paris, France – October 16, 2024 – Atos today launches in partnership with Nexthink their state-of-the-art Experience Operations Center (XOC) offering. The joint XOC delivers digital workplace operations that enhance end-user experience through enabling real-time, AI-driven efficiencies and boosting workplace productivity. Atos was one of Nexthink’s first managed services partners; this new offering builds on their 8-year partnership rooted in helping organizations create employee-centric workplaces that drive innovative and sustainable business value.
Powered by Atos Real-Time Data Processing Framework (RTDPF) which captures billions of workplace and devices data, and Nexthink Infinity, XOC integrates data from sources such as IT service management, endpoint, contact center and identity management platforms within the digital workplace, to provide a unified, real-time performance overview. Beyond the analytical insights provided by standard workplace analytics, the XOC command center proactively pinpoints user experience issues, 24/7 and in real time.
Its serverless architecture reveals hidden patterns and forecasts based on historical data and Atos 10-year expertise in digital experience management, allowing agile and responsive decision-making and problem resolution before users are affected.
Leon Gilbert, Senior Vice President Digital Workplace Atos, said: “Focusing on employee experience is crucial for organizations to drive performance, streamline efficiency, and boost profitability. Our innovative Experience Operations Center helps achieve this ambition by leveraging state-of-the-art automation and AI that put humans at the heart of their problem-solving capabilities”.
Atos leverages Nexthink’s digital workplace observability and automation platform to streamline issue detection, diagnostics and remediation. By helping companies to go from proactive incident identification to automated fixes in minutes, Nexthink’s platform supports XOC offering to deliver cost reduction, time savings, improved sustainability and increased employee performance. Going forward, Atos and Nexthink continue to collaborate to enhance the employee experience offered to their clients.
Yassine Zaied, Chief Strategy Officer, Nexthink, said: “Atos has long been an innovator in the end user computing space, and this latest offering will once again challenge the status quo for the better. Today, the Digital Employee Experience is no longer just a consideration, it’s central to every successful digital transformation. It demands a systematic, not ad-hoc, approach. Atos XOC has such transformative potential and we’re proud to play a pivotal role in driving this evolution forward”.
The Experience Operations Center compliments Atos’ Digital Workplace portfolio offerings by real-time insights in the digital workplace experience, proactive issue detection and accelerated resolution. Atos teams provide end-to-end employee experience solutions through digital collaboration and productivity tools, as well as intelligent customer care services. They currently deliver workplace analytics services to 1.8 million devices globally. In March 2024, Gartner positioned Atos as a Leader in its 2024 Magic Quadrant for Outsourced Digital Workplace Services (ODWS) for the eighth consecutive year.
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About Atos
Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with c. 92,000 employees and annual revenue of c. € 10 billion. European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high-performance computing, the Group provides tailored end-to-end solutions for all industries in 69 countries. A pioneer in decarbonization services and products, Atos is committed to a secure and decarbonized digital for its clients. Atos is a SE (Societas Europaea) and listed on Euronext Paris.
The purpose of Atos is to help design the future of the information space. Its expertise and services support the development of knowledge, education and research in a multicultural approach and contribute to the development of scientific and technological excellence. Across the world, the Group enables its customers and employees, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space.
About Nexthink
Nexthink is the leader in digital employee experience management software. The company provides IT leaders with unprecedented insight allowing them to see, diagnose and fix issues at scale impacting employees anywhere, with any application or network, before employees notice the issue. As the first solution to allow IT to progress from reactive problem solving to proactive optimization, Nexthink enables its more than 1,200 customers to provide better digital experiences to more than 15 million employees. Dual headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland and Boston, Massachusetts, Nexthink has 9 offices worldwide.
Green Party Councillor welcomes the first step at Westminster to introduce Assisted Dying in England & Wales
Cllr Barry McKee said “I firmly believe that we need to change the law to bring Assisted Dying to these islands and I welcome the Choice at the End of Life Bill receiving its first reading at Parliament.”
“No matter how much people suffer or how certain the terminal nature of their illness, nobody in the UK or Ireland currently has the option for a safe, compassionate and medically-assisted death on their own terms.”
“We leave dying people to take matters into their own hands, with hundreds with a terminal illness estimated to take their own lives every year.”
“We allow some who are of means the option to go to Switzerland, to die alone, due to the fear that anyone accompanying them might be prosecuted on their return.And we leave others – whether because they can’t afford to go or aren’t able to– to face unbearable suffering.”
“But we can’t keep running away from this issue, leaving dying people and their loved ones to fend for themselves.”
“I hope that MPs from Northern Ireland will be able to support a change to the law. They have a chance to input on ensuring that strict criteria and safeguards to prevent abuse or coercion are contained in any new law introduced.”
Cllr McKee concluded “With bills passing through parliaments in Holyrood, Westminster and the Oireachtas the pressure will be on the Stormont Executive to ensure that residents in Northern Ireland aren’t the only ones left without autonomy and dignity in death.”
Bern, 16.10.2024 – On 16 October, the Federal Council decided to adopt most of the measures in the EU’s 14th package of sanctions against Russia. The new measures will come into force on 17 October. On 8 July, 116 individuals and entities were already added to Switzerland’s sanctions list, and on 21 August the first measures in the 14th sanctions package were adopted.
The EU adopted its 14th package of sanctions against Russia on 24 June in response to Russia’s continued military aggression against Ukraine and its destabilising actions undermining Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and security. The aim is to strengthen the enforcement of existing sanctions to prevent their circumvention, and to apply new sanctions in order to weaken Russia’s ability to wage war.
On 8 July, the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER) had already imposed sanctions on 116 additional individuals and entities within its jurisdiction. This means that around 2,250 individuals, companies and organisations in Switzerland are currently on the sanctions list in connection with the situation in Ukraine. The list is identical to that of the EU. On 21 August, the Federal Council decided to adopt further measures in the EU’s 14th package of sanctions against Russia. The international harmonisation of bans on Russian diamonds was a particular focus of these sanctions. After a detailed examination, the Federal Council decided on 16 October to adopt the remaining measures in the 14th sanctions package that concern Switzerland, thereby strengthening the impact of the sanctions.
Measures in the goods sector
This decision further tightens export restrictions on goods intended to strengthen Russia’s industrial sector and military and technological capabilities. In addition, the list of entities subject to tighter export restrictions will be extended by 61 entities. Around half of these entities are located in third countries and are linked to the Russian military complex. The Federal Council had already decided on 31 January that companies would have to contractually prohibit the re-export to Russia of certain critical goods (common high priority items) when exporting to third countries. An equivalent obligation has now been introduced for the transfer of intellectual property rights and trade secrets, in order to prevent industrial know-how transferred to third countries from being used to produce such goods for use in Russia. In addition, there is now a ban on the purchase and import of Russian helium.
Measures in the financial sector
The use of certain specialised financial messaging services for payment transactions (i.e. alternatives to SWIFT) will be prohibited for banks. The Federal Council has also introduced various legal provisions on transaction bans. One of these concerns crypto assets providers that facilitate transactions supporting Russia’s defence industry. These new sanctions will curb the ability of the Kremlin to channel funds to finance its war machine.
Measures in the energy sector
The Federal Council has introduced several sanctions targeting liquefied natural gas (LNG). It will now be prohibited to invest in LNG projects under construction in Russia or to supply such projects with the necessary goods. From March 2025, it will also be prohibited to provide services for the transshipment of Russian LNG on EU territory. The new sanctions package also prohibits the purchase, import and transport of Russian LNG via terminals in the EU that are not connected to the gas pipeline network.
Protection for Swiss individuals and entities
In order to better protect Swiss companies, the Federal Council has introduced legislation that enables them to sue companies targeted by sanctions in the Swiss courts to claim damages for losses that the Swiss companies have incurred as a result of arbitrary proceedings in Russia or third countries. The same applies to Swiss individuals and companies whose assets have been unlawfully expropriated in Russia.
The EU has also imposed restrictions on accepting applications for the registration of certain intellectual property rights (brands, patents, etc.) by Russian nationals and companies. This is because the Russian government and courts have taken measures to illegitimately deprive EU intellectual property rights holders of their protection in Russia. The situation for Swiss companies is different, as there have been no intellectual property rights violations committed by Russia against Swiss companies. The Federal Council has therefore decided not to adopt this measure to protect Swiss companies; however, it will continue to monitor the situation.
Subsidiaries abroad
With the 14th sanctions package, the EU has introduced a general obligation for businesses to ensure that their subsidiaries in third countries do not undermine the EU’s sanctions. Swiss law typically only covers situations that occur on Swiss territory. However, there may be cases where Swiss law applies, for example where payments are made or instructions issued from Switzerland that are prohibited by the sanctions. This allows Swiss companies that use their subsidiaries to circumvent sanctions to be prosecuted. SECO is currently examining a number of cases in which Swiss companies are suspected of violating sanctions through their subsidiaries abroad. The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has taken over one of the cases. Under the current sanctions law, Switzerland already has the means to prosecute companies for circumventing sanctions by using their subsidiaries, and is actively doing so. Against this background, the Federal Council has decided not to adopt this EU measure in its current form. The EAER will monitor the situation and inform the Federal Council in the event of any changes in the position.
Further measures
Sanctions have also been imposed in relation to 27 ships involved in Russia’s war against Ukraine, including vessels belonging to Russia’s ‘dark fleet’ (ships that deliver goods with military applications to Russia, circumvent the international oil price cap in defiance of international standards, or carry grain looted from Ukraine). The measures include bans on providing services, including financial services, to such vessels or on acquiring or operating them.
In order to limit Russia’s influence on democratic processes in Switzerland, the Federal Council has also decided to prohibit political parties, NGOs and media service providers from accepting donations from the Russian government. As in the EU, exceptions are provided for, to ensure the right to freedom of expression, information and the media, for example.
Address for enquiries
Enquiries from the media: EAER Communications, info@gs-wbf.admin.ch, +41 (0)58 462 20 07
Headline: Azure Cobalt 100-based Virtual Machines are now generally available
We are excited to announce the general availability of the new Azure Cobalt 100 Virtual Machines (VMs). These VMs run on Microsoft’s first fully custom Arm-based Cobalt 100 CPU and represent a significant milestone in our end-to-end approach to building cloud infrastructure.
Today we are announcing the general availability of the new Azure Cobalt 100-based Virtual Machines (VMs). These VMs run on Microsoft’s first 64-bit Arm-based Azure Cobalt 100 CPU, which has been fully designed in-house. They represent a significant milestone in our journey in designing and building out our cloud infrastructure, with optimization and customization across every layer of the infrastructure stack—from silicon, to servers, to services. Through vertical integration across hardware and software, Azure Cobalt 100-based VMs are one of Microsoft’s latest examples of innovating to enhance and optimize our cloud infrastructure with an end-to-end systems approach, to deliver the right mix of performance, power efficiency, and scale for our customers.
The Cobalt 100-based VMs consist of our new general purpose Dpsv6-series and Dplsv6-series and our memory-optimized Epsv6-series VM series. They offer up to 50% better price performance than our previous generation Arm-based VMs, making them an attractive option for a wide range of scale-out and cloud-native Linux-based workloads, including data analytics, web and application servers, open source databases, caches, and more.
The new Azure Cobalt 100-based VMs deliver leading performance across various workloads compared to previous generations of Azure Arm-based VMs: up to 1.4x CPU performance, up to 1.5x performance on Java-based workloads, and up to 2x performance on web servers, .NET applications, and in-memory cache applications compared to the previous generation Azure Arm-based VMs. These VMs also support 4x local storage IOPS (with NVMe) and up to 1.5x network bandwidth compared to the previous generation Azure Arm-based VMs.
The new VMs are broadly available in Canada Central, Central US, East US 2, East US, Germany West Central, Japan East, Mexico Central, North Europe, Southeast Asia, Sweden Central, Switzerland North, UAE North, West Europe, and West US 2. The number of regions will continue to expand in 2024 and beyond with Australia East, Brazil South, France Central, India Central, South Central US, UK South, West US 3, and West US coming soon.
Customer adoption and scenarios
We have been working with several internal and external customers during the preview period. For example, IC3, the platform that powers billions of customer conversations in Microsoft Teams, is serving its growing customer base more efficiently, achieving up to 45% better performance on Cobalt 100-based VMs.
We’re also delivering Cobalt 100-based VMs to many of our independent software vendor (ISV) partners offering platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) solutions on Microsoft Azure.
“The Cobalt 100, Microsoft Azure’s new Arm-based processor, represents a huge step forward for optimizing performance and productivity. Cadence and Microsoft’s collaboration helps our mutual customers tackle the demands of giga-scale compute that advanced-node silicon design demands. The Cobalt 100 helps our thousands of electronic design automation (EDA) and systems customers meet their ever-increasing demands for throughput to speed time-to-market.” —Mahesh Turaga, Vice President (VP) of Cloud Business Development, Cadence
“We are really excited about the new Cobalt 100 VMs. We are making them the primary platform for our Databricks SQL Serverless offering on Azure, as they offer outstanding efficiency and allow us to deliver significant price-performance improvements to our customers. Customers using our Azure Databricks classic Jobs offering will also greatly benefit from Cobalt VMs by selecting them for their Jobs cluster nodes, achieving noticeable performance improvements while keeping operating costs down.” —Michael Kiermaier, VP of Business Strategy and Operations, Databricks
“At Elastic, we are driving innovation and cost-efficiency by enabling customers to leverage our Search AI-powered observability, security, and search solutions on Arm-based architecture. Azure Virtual Machines with Cobalt 100 Arm CPUs enables Elastic to deliver better throughput and up to 37% improved performance compared to Azure’ previous generation Arm based VMs.” —Uri Cohen, Vice President, Product Management, Elastic
“At Rescale, our mission is to elevate innovation by providing the best tools in high performance computing, data, and AI to organizations of every size to deliver engineering and scientific breakthroughs that enrich humanity. We have tested the Azure Cobalt 100 VMs to power our high-performance computing platform and found it to deliver about a 40% improvement in performance compared to Azure’s previous generation Arm-based VMs. We look forward to upgrading our Azure infrastructure to these new VMs and offer comparable performance improvements to our customers so they can tackle complex challenges with greater speed and efficiency.” —Adam McKenzie, Chief Technology Officer, Rescale
“Siemens EDA continues to expand its partnership with Microsoft to develop innovative solutions for our mutual silicon and electronic systems customers. Our collaboration around Microsoft Azure Cobalt 100 Arm-based VMs running analog, standard-cell, memory, and digital verification workloads has demonstrated compelling performance and economic benefits. The general availability of these new VMs marks an important milestone for the industry, highlighting its fast-growing reliance on continuously advancing hardware and software platforms optimized for high throughput and efficiency.” —Craig Johnson, Vice President, Siemens EDA Strategy
“We have extensively tested Azure’s new Cobalt 100 VMs and compared them to the previous generation Arm VMs on Azure using Snowflake workloads. We’re thrilled with the significant improvements in performance. And now, we’re excited to adopt these latest Cobalt 100 VMs and share that performance improvement with our customers!” —Gabe Bryant, Senior Manager, Snowflake
“In the face of unprecedented compute and memory demands driven by increasingly sophisticated systems, designers are leveraging the cloud to scale their computing resources. Our close collaboration with Microsoft Azure facilitates the adoption of Arm architecture-based compute resources by providing customers with industry-leading, AI-driven EDA tools enabled on the Azure cloud to help them address the escalating workload demands.” —Sanjay Bali, senior vice president of EDA strategy and product management at Synopsys
“Templafy relies on the stability and scalability of Microsoft Azure to run our document generation platform for enterprises worldwide, and we’re excited about the new Azure Cobalt 100 VMs. After evaluation we’ve observed significant performance improvements, including approximately 25% higher throughput and 35% lower CPU usage compared to Azure’s previous generation Arm-based VMs. We look forward to harnessing these advancements to enhance our platform’s performance and deliver even better experiences for our customers when it comes to their critical business documents.” —Marco van Kimmenade, Director of Engineering, Templafy
Synergy with our technology partners
We value the collaboration with our technology partners.
“The Cobalt 100 processor is a fantastic example of how Arm-based silicon, supported by a robust software ecosystem, is addressing the growing compute complexity of modern infrastructure,” said Mohamed Awad, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Infrastructure Business, Arm. “Following years of collaboration with Microsoft to bring Arm-based VMs to market, the general availability of Cobalt 100 marks an important milestone in our partnership, and demonstrates the power, efficiency and flexibility of Arm Compute Subsystems in driving the workloads of the future.”
The journey to Arm: Embracing innovation and customer benefits
Microsoft has a longstanding history of contributing to Arm architecture and integrating Arm technology. This experience has enabled us to develop important industry standards that prepared the Arm architecture for datacenter-scale computing. We have also been working closely with Arm on industry initiatives such as ServerReady and SystemReady and received industry recognition for both initiatives. Our journey into Arm-based VMs is based on a vision to deliver superior price-performance and power efficiency. The Cobalt 100-based VMs embody this vision by offering these benefits. By embracing Arm-based VMs, we have been able to offer our customers a unique combination of performance and cost effectiveness.
Developer ecosystem
The developer ecosystem for Arm continues to thrive and has seen tremendous progress in the last couple of years. Major developer platforms and languages such as C++, .NET, and Java provide Arm-native versions. We have invested in Arm-specific optimizations for each of these platforms and languages so we’re fully leveraging the capabilities of the Arm architecture.
The larger ecosystem has embraced Arm with many popular infrastructure and deployment solutions now available with native Arm support. GitHub Actions, GitHub’s continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) workflow engine, is an integral part of many developers’ workflows and used to continuously build, test, and deploy apps. This is now available for Arm in two flavors—self-hosted runners that can be hosted on an Arm VM or on local Arm hardware, and GitHub-hosted runners.
Containers are a popular deployment target for many reasons: a streamlined development workflow, isolation and security, efficient resource utilization, portability, and reproducibility. Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) now supports the creation of Arm agent nodes as well as mixing x86 and Arm architecture nodes within a cluster.
Specifications
You can select from a range of Azure Virtual Machines of three memory ratios for a given vCPU size, giving you the flexibility to choose the configuration that works best for your workloads in terms of CPU performance and memory needs. All these VM series are available with and without local disks so that you can deploy the option that best fits your workload.
The new Dpsv6-series and Dpdsv6-series general-purpose VMs offer up to 96 vCPUs and 384 GiB of RAM (4:1 memory-to-vCPU ratio). They are ideal for scale-out workloads, cloud-native solutions like AKS, small to medium open-source databases, application servers, and web servers. Arm developers can use these VMs in CI/CD pipelines, development, and test scenarios.
The new Dplsv6-series and Dpldsv6-series VMs provide up to 96 vCPUs and 192 GiB of RAM (2:1 memory-to-vCPU ratio). They are perfect for media encoding, small databases, gaming servers, microservices, and workloads that don’t need high RAM per vCPU.
The new Epsv6-series and Epdsv6-series memory-optimized VMs offer up to 96 vCPUs and 672 GiB of RAM (up to 8:1 memory-to-vCPU ratio). These VMs are designed for memory-intensive workloads such as large databases, in-memory caching applications, and data analytics.
The new virtual machines support all remote disk types such as Standard SSD, Standard HDD, Premium SSD and Ultra Disk storage. To learn more about various disk types and their regional availability, please refer to Azure managed disk type. Disk storage is billed separately from virtual machines. You can deploy these new VMs using existing methods including the Azure portal, SDKs, APIs, PowerShell, and the command-line interface (CLI).
You can learn more about the new Azure Cobalt 100-based VMs by visiting the specification pages: Dpsv6-series, Dpdsv6-series, Dplsv6-series, Dpldsv6-series, Epsv6-series, Epdsv6-series.
Pricing
To learn more about the pricing of Azure Cobalt 100-based VMs, please visit the Azure Virtual Machines pricing and Pricing calculator pages.
You can also take advantage of Reserved Instances, Azure savings plan for compute, and Spot Virtual Machines to lower your costs. Reserved VM Instances can reduce costs and improve your budget forecasting through upfront one-year or three-year commitments. For a limited time, you can save up to 15% more when you purchase one-year Azure Reserved Virtual Machine (VM) Instances for select Linux VMs. This offer is available between from October 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025. See here for more details. The Azure savings plan for compute gives you the flexibility to save across multiple Azure services, including Azure VMs. Spot Virtual Machines can significantly reduce the cost of running in Azure and further optimize your cloud spend for workloads that can tolerate interruptions and have flexible execution time.
A new era of price performance and power efficiency
The general availability of Azure Cobalt 100-based VMs marks the beginning of a new era in Azure’s infrastructure. With our custom silicon program, we are delivering exceptional price performance and power efficiency to our customers. We are excited to see the impact of these innovations on our customers’ businesses and we look forward to bringing even better solutions to our customers in the future.
Thank you for joining us on this exciting journey.
For questions, please go to Azure Support and our experts will be there to help you.
Neuchâtel, 17.10.2024 – The number of employed persons in Switzerland rose sharply between 1970 and 2023, from 2.843 million to 4.848 million. The percentage of professionals in the workforce (people in intellectual and scientific occupations) rose significantly between 1970 and 2023 (from 7.3% to 26.8%). The percentage of women in the workforce rose from 33.9% in 1970 to 46.7% in 2023, and that of foreign nationals from 19.2% to 27.5%. In 1970, part-time employment accounted for 12.7% of total employment, rising to 37.6% in 2023. Gender distribution among the major occupational groups has become more balanced. The same goes for the distribution of Swiss nationals and foreigners. These are some of the findings of the publication ’50 years of change among the employed population: demographics, working hours and occupations’.
This press release and further information on the topic can be found on the FSO website (see link below).
Aratu Forests Ltd (Aratu)today announced plans for the first of three Swiss-designed high strength steel debris nets which aim to reduce the amount of woody debris flowing into catchments following storm events.
Aratu plans debris nets at private properties bordering Te Marunga, Waimanu and Wakaroa forests. These will be subject to a resource consent process. The first is planned to span a waterway near Wakaroa Forest on a site straddling two properties.
These will complement a range of other measures within the forest that have already been implemented or are planned.
“We’re committed to being a responsible custodian of the environments we operate in, so we’re pleased to be advancing our plans with today’s announcement,” said Neil Woods, Aratu Chief Executive.
“Debris nets are one part of a toolbox of measures we are using and plan to use to minimise woody debris accumulating in plantations and migrating down waterways after storms.
“The nets are an extra layer of protection that have been successfully used overseas and in New Zealand. They’ve proven to be very effective at saving lives, buildings and land from the impacts of woody debris and rock falls.
“We’re proud to be partnering with Swiss-based Geobrugg, the pioneer of debris net technology. In the last 10 years Geobrugg has installed over 250 debris flow barriers of the kind proposed by Aratu in more than 25 countries including New Zealand.
“The planned net will be the first of its kind in Tairāwhiti. One installed in 2021 in northern Hawke’s Bay has worked well to date to trap debris after storms.
“The region paid a high price for the devastation caused by cyclones Hale and Gabrielle. Like all forestry companies in Tairāwhiti, we work in a very challenging environment with many trees planted on highly erodible soils on steep hill slopes.
“We have learnt much from the cyclones and are determined to keep lifting our game to limit the impacts from our operations.”
Since taking over the forests in 2019, Aratu has introduced a range of measures to improve the management of woody debris (see details in Q&A attached).
“We look forward to progressing the resource consent process with the Gisborne District Council so we can get on with doing our bit to better manage woody debris in Tairāwhiti,” said Neil Woods.
Aratu manages 35,000 hectares of forestry plantation land across Te Tairāwhiti. In July 2019, Hikurangi Forest Farms was purchased by New Forests, an Australian-based, international and sustainable forestry investment manager, on behalf of its institutional investment clients. The company was renamed Aratu Forests Ltd. Since taking over ownership, we have continued to develop low impact harvesting techniques to mitigate debris movements from the plantations to ensure its sustainable plantations deliver long term benefits for the local community. We support over 200 permanent jobs and each week our company invests more than $1 million into the local economy through payments to our employees and suppliers. Aratu is committed to being a responsible custodian of the environment it operates in. In learning from the 2023 cyclone events, we have continued to refine our forest management practices with the aim of mitigating any negative impacts on the wider environment.
Source: Switzerland – Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport
Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports
Bern, 17.10.2024 – Opening address by President Viola Amherd, head of the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS), at the Ukraine Mine Action Conference UMAC2024, Lausanne, Thursday, 17 October 2024.
Check against delivery
Prime Minister, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is an honour to welcome you, Mr Prime Minister, to Lausanne today, and to open this conference with you.
The next two days will be dedicated to one of the most pressing humanitarian issues of our time: humanitarian demining.
Mines, cluster munitions and explosive remnants of war have a devastating impact: they claim thousands of lives every year, make land impassable, resources inaccessible and hamper economic development.
Every improvised explosive device that we defuse is a step towards security, progress and a better life – this is the conviction that lies at the heart of our efforts.
Today, humanitarian mine action is faced with major challenges.
The Ottawa Convention bans anti-personnel mines, because they kill and maim indiscriminately. While the initial success of the Convention inspired optimism, in recent years this has given way to a certain disillusionment.
Since 2014, the number of victims has started to rise again. Ongoing armed conflicts, such as Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine, bring new contamination from mines and other weapons. The effects of urban warfare and the use of improvised explosive devices are particularly severe.
These developments reflect the global situation, which is marked by growing geopolitical tensions.
This makes it all the more important, especially in view of the rising number of victims, to continue our efforts to improve the protection of the civilian population from the dangers of mines and other remnants of war.
Humanitarian demining is not only a matter of safety, but also a precondition for recovery, in particular for the resumption of agricultural production and the education of children.
I call on all states to join the Ottawa Convention and the Convention on Cluster Munitions, and to support them to the best of their abilities.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Four months ago, the international community met on the Bürgenstock for the Summit on Peace in Ukraine. At the opening, I spoke of our goal to set in motion a process that will lead to a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.
The current conference follows on from this, because living in peace also means being free from the fear of mines and remnants of war. Switzerland has been committed to humanitarian demining for over 30 years. We support projects in affected countries and deploy specialist military personnel.
We are also committed to the diplomatic, legal and practical implementation of the relevant conventions around the world.
We are determined to continue to do our part in Ukraine as well.
Almost a quarter of Ukraine’s territory is contaminated with explosive ordnance. Last year we decided to make one hundred million francs available for humanitarian mine action in Ukraine (from 2024 to 2027).
The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) and the Fondation suisse de déminage (FSD) are primarily responsible for implementing this programme.
Projects will be developed in close cooperation with Ukraine’s civilian authorities. They will include mine and explosive ordnance clearance, the promotion of standards and quality in mine clearance, training, and operational and material support.
Last year, provided the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU) with a remote-controlled demining machine from the Digger Foundation.
This year, we will deliver three more machines from Global Clearance Solutions and provide local training and support.
This will enable Ukraine to carry out effective and safe demining operations independently in the future.
Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,
For today’s Ukraine Mine Action Conference here in Lausanne, we have set ourselves the following goals:
– We aim to raise awareness of the importance of humanitarian mine action in Ukraine and worldwide. – Stimulate further support going forward, based on the Ukrainian Mine Action Strategy, which provides guidance for current and future partnerships. – And showcase innovative solutions that will make mine clearance safer and more effective worldwide.
Three thematic areas were defined in the run-up to the Ukraine Mine Action Conference: people, partners and progress.
First, the people: In the face of the immense suffering and lasting damage caused by mines, cluster munitions and explosive remnants of war, we must act decisively.
Contamination in conflict areas also affects many countries not involved in the conflict. For example, food prices are rising in many countries because Ukrainian land cannot be used safely and productively.
Then, the partners: Our aim is for other countries that are also affected by mines or that are providing aid to share their experiences with Ukraine and its partners.
For mine action to be effective, governments, international organisations, NGOs, the private sector and the scientific community must work closely together – and they are all gathered here in Lausanne today.
And finally, progress: We must work continuously to make humanitarian mine action safer and more effective.
We need to find innovative solutions, for example by combining the use of artificial intelligence, powerful drones and robots.
The resources we use to clear mines in Ukraine today are also an investment to improve humanitarian demining globally in the future.
Excellences, Ladies and gentlemen,
Humanitarian demining is part of Switzerland’s humanitarian tradition. We want to help alleviate suffering and enable sustainable development.
That is also the aim of this conference, which we have organised together with Ukraine.
In closing, I would like to express my sincere thanks to all of you for your dedication and commitment.
Your presence here underscores the crucial support that is so urgently needed and that the people living in mine-affected countries deserve.
Thank you very much.
Address for enquiries
DDPS Communication Federal Palace East CH-3003 Bern
Source: Switzerland – Department of Justice and Police
Federal Office of Justice
Bern, 17.10.2024 – –
GRECO (the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption) acknowledges Switzerland’s efforts to prevent corruption among judges and members of parliament in the Second Addendum to its Second Compliance Report. The Report will be published today, 17 October. This concludes GRECO’s fourth round of evaluations.
Address for enquiries
Olivier Gonin, Federal Office of Justice, T +41 58 463 08 50, olivier.gonin@bj.admin.ch
Publisher
Federal Office of Justicehttp://www.bj.admin.ch
Source: Switzerland – Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport
Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports
Bern, 17.10.2024 – In order to reduce the danger posed by mines and other explosive ordnance in Ukraine, the Swiss government is supporting Ukraine’s civil protection service through a partnership with the Swiss company Global Clearance Solutions (GCS). The partnership involves supplying three mine clearance systems to Ukraine alongside a comprehensive training, mentoring and logistics package. The package, which amounts to CHF 4.6 million, is being funded by the federal government and underlines the importance of humanitarian mine clearance for the country’s recovery.
Mines and other explosive ordnance in the ground pose a danger to the civilian population, restrict agricultural work and hinder the reconstruction of a country. In Ukraine, around 139,000 square kilometres of land are estimated to be contaminated by mines and other explosive ordnance. That is equivalent to about three and a half times the surface area of Switzerland. Humanitarian mine clearance in Ukraine is therefore a priority for Switzerland. For that reason, the federal government has signed a contract with the Swiss company Global Clearance Solutions (GCS) for the delivery of three mine clearance systems to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU). The package, which includes a training and mentoring programme, is worth CHF 4.6 million.
The project aims to strengthen the capacities of the Ukrainian civil authorities so that humanitarian demining operations can be carried out more safely, efficiently and effectively. In addition to the delivery of the three demining systems, the contract includes an extensive training, mentoring and logistics package. GCS has its own maintenance centre and operations team in Ukraine, enabling the company to provide extensive training and deploy the demining systems sustainably and efficiently.
The partnership and the demining systems are being financed out of the CHF 100 million that the Federal Council made available on 29 September 2023 to support humanitarian mine clearance in Ukraine. The total amount will be funded equally by the DDPS and the FDFA. Through this support package, Switzerland is providing its expertise to help overcome an immense humanitarian challenge. In addition, Switzerland, under the lead of President Viola Amherd and Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, is jointly hosting the Ukraine Mine Action Conference with Ukraine in Lausanne on 17 and 18 October. The importance of mine clearance for Ukraine’s recovery will be discussed at the conference.
The federal government is working closely with the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) on humanitarian mine clearance in Ukraine. The GICHD is supporting the Ukrainian authorities in developing a national demining programme. In addition, the federal government is supporting the demining work of the Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) on the ground in Ukraine. A year ago, the DDPS presented Ukraine with a remote-controlled demining machine from the Swiss DIGGER Foundation.
A letter form the Social Security Advisory Committee’s (SSAC’s) Chair to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions about Winter Fuel Payments in England and Wales from Winter 2024 to 2025, and the European Economic Area and Switzerland for winter 2024 to 2025.
The Social Security Advisory Committee considers it essential that the Department for Work and Pensions takes every reasonable step to ensure that all those eligible for a Winter Fuel Payment are supported in accessing it in a timely manner and accordingly provides a number of observations and recommendations for the Secretary of State to consider.
STEINHAUSEN, Switzerland, Oct. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) (“Transocean”) today announced a one-year contract for the Deepwater Conqueror with an undisclosed operator in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The contract is expected to commence in October 2025 and contribute approximately $193 million in backlog, including additional services.
About Transocean
Transocean is a leading international provider of offshore contract drilling services for oil and gas wells. The company specializes in technically demanding sectors of the global offshore drilling business with a particular focus on ultra-deepwater and harsh environment drilling services and operates the highest specification floating offshore drilling fleet in the world.
Transocean owns or has partial ownership interests in and operates a fleet of 34 mobile offshore drilling units, consisting of 26 ultra-deepwater floaters and eight harsh environment floaters.
Forward-Looking Statements
The statements described herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements could contain words such as “possible,” “intend,” “will,” “if,” “expect,” or other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and assumptions, and are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are beyond our control, and in many cases, cannot be predicted. As a result, actual results could differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, estimated duration of customer contracts, contract dayrate amounts, future contract commencement dates and locations, planned shipyard projects and other out-of-service time, sales of drilling units, the cost and timing of mobilizations and reactivations, operating hazards and delays, risks associated with international operations, actions by customers and other third parties, the fluctuation of current and future prices of oil and gas, the global and regional supply and demand for oil and gas, the intention to scrap certain drilling rigs, the effects of the spread of and mitigation efforts by governments, businesses and individuals related to contagious illnesses, and other factors, including those and other risks discussed in the company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, and in the company’s other filings with the SEC, which are available free of charge on the SEC’s website at: http://www.sec.gov. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those indicated. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or to persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by reference to these risks and uncertainties. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the particular statement. We expressly disclaim any obligations or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement to reflect any change in our expectations or beliefs with regard to the statement or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any forward-looking statement is based, except as required by law. All non-GAAP financial measure reconciliations to the most comparative GAAP measure are displayed in quantitative schedules on the company’s website at: http://www.deepwater.com.
This press release, or referenced documents, do not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities, and do not constitute an offering prospectus within the meaning of the Swiss Financial Services Act (“FinSA”) or advertising within the meaning of the FinSA. Investors must rely on their own evaluation of Transocean and its securities, including the merits and risks involved. Nothing contained herein is, or shall be relied on as, a promise or representation as to the future performance of Transocean.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
The UK and other OSCE participating States mark World Day against the Death Penalty at the OSCE.
Location:
Vienna
Delivered on:
(Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered)
Thank you Mr Chair,
I am speaking on behalf of Canada, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, San Marino, the United Kingdom and my own country Switzerland.
The 10th of October marked the 22nd World Day against the Death Penalty.
We categorically oppose the death penalty under all circumstances, it is not consistent with human rights, including the right to life. In this context, we welcome the fact that the global trend towards the abolition of capital punishment continues unabated in all parts of the world, including the OSCE region. Today, almost three-quarters of states are abolitionist, either in law or in practice. Amid growing pressure on human rights and increasing instability, this positive development – that crosses the globe – should not go unnoticed.
However, it should also not invite complacency in our collective efforts against the death penalty, especially given recent setbacks observed. Last year, recorded global executions soared to their highest number in almost a decade.
In light of this, it is important to emphasize that the death penalty neither makes communities safer nor serves as a deterrent to crime. On the contrary, it exacerbates cycles of violence and is often used as a tool of repression. Responding to a crime, no matter how heinous, by committing another crime should never be the solution.
As of today, only two participating States of the OSCE continue to apply capital punishment: Belarus and the United States. Regarding Belarus, we deeply deplore the fact that the use of the death penalty has been extended twice in recent years. We therefore urge the Belarusian authorities to reverse this trend and establish a moratorium on executions as a first step towards abolition.
We also remain concerned that capital punishment continues to be used in the United States. We welcome the current moratorium on Federal executions and we call on the relevant US authorities to commute all Federal death sentences into prison terms
Mr Chair,
Our countries are committed to the universal abolition of the death penalty and call on all States, both within and beyond the OSCE, to completely abolish capital punishment or, as a first step, establish a moratorium on its use. In this context, we urge all participating States to vote in favour of the UN resolution, currently under negotiation at the UN General Assembly, which calls for a moratorium on capital punishment.
The 2024 China-Europe Talent Forum is held in Beijing on Oct. 15
Over 40 politicians, experts, scholars and youth representatives from China and Europe attended the cultural sub-forum of the 2024 China-Europe Talent Forum themed Cultural Integration: A Bridge to Promote Talent Exchange and Cooperation Between China and Europe. Held in Beijing on Oct. 15, the event was co-hosted by the Beijing Talent Work Bureau and Switzerland’s Adecco Group, and organized by CICG Center for Europe and Africa, with guidance from China International Communications Group (CICG).
Liu Dawei, vice president of the CICG, and Antonio Miguel Carmona, president of Spain’s Friends of China Association, delivered keynote speeches at the forum. The forum was moderated by Zhao Lijun, president of the CICG Center for Europe and Africa (China Today).
Liu Dawei, vice president of the CICG, delivers a speech at the forum
In his speech, Liu pointed out that cultural integration serves a unique role in promoting talent exchanges and cooperation between China and Europe. Exchanges and mutual learning between cultures help broaden the perspectives of talents; cooperative innovation helps cultivate versatile talents; and strengthening alignment in talent-related policies helps optimize the environment for talent mobility between China and Europe. As a comprehensive international communications institution, CICG has always been committed to promoting Chinese culture and facilitating exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign cultures. CICG will further expand cooperation on cultural exchanges with European countries with an aim to enhance mutual understanding and collaboration among the younger generation on both sides.
Antonio Miguel Carmona, president of Spain’s Friends of China Association, delivers a speech at the forum
Carmona stated that President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative has provided a platform for equal dialogue and communication for countries and different civilizations. In recent years, a series of protectionist measures taken by some Western countries against Chinese products have been false decisions that go against the current tide. Only by promoting exchanges and communication between regions and countries can we achieve common development.
The forum witnessed in-depth discussions among Chinese and foreign participants, including Wang Daquan, director-general of Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange under the Ministry of Education; Fan Daqi, vice president of the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies; Joël Ruet; chairman of the Bridge Tank in France; Robert Walker, professor at the Beijing Normal University and fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in the UK; Zhang Jinling, fellow at the Institute of European Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Fang Youzhong, deputy dean of the School of European Studies at Beijing International Studies University; Barbara Dietrich, CEO and editor-in-chief of “Diplomatic World”; David Bartosch, fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences at Beijing Normal University; Jia Jianxin, former cultural counsellor at the Chinese embassy in Austria; Zhao Yongsheng, fellow at the Academy of Global Innovation and Governance at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing; Gilbert Van Kerckhove, rotating chairman of the Foreign Experts Committee of the BRITF Fund of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology; and Nils Bergemann, teacher at the University of International Business and Economics.
The discussion focused on three key topics: the overall situation and problems in today’s cross-cultural talent cultivation, the significance of cross-cultural competence in cultural integration, and how to improve cross-cultural management and governance capabilities. The participants provided valuable insights for promoting talent exchanges and cooperation between China and Europe.
Wang Daquan, director-general of Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange under the Ministry of Education, delivers a speech at the forum
Wang Daquan said that international talents serve as a bridge for fostering understanding between different cultures and promoting connections between peoples. The Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange has been promoting the going out and coming in of talents, expanding international platforms for educational exchange and cooperation to support cross-cultural talent cultivation. In the future, the center will collaborate with partner universities and institutions in both China and Europe to jointly build a high-quality, trusted, and secure ecosystem for sustainable development in international education, supporting the cross-cultural exchange and talent development.
Fan Daqi noted that as China-Europe relations continue to deepen, considerable progress has been made in the cultivation of cross-cultural talents on both sides, but challenges remain due to cultural differences, technological changes, and a complex international environment. He emphasized that China-Europe cross-cultural talents must enhance their knowledge reserves, engage in practical cross-cultural exchanges, and foster inclusive understanding across cultures, thereby improving their international insight, global competence, and collaborative abilities.
In his video speech, Walker stated that global geopolitical issues are becoming increasingly prominent, leading to divisions in the world and regional instability. There is now a vast literature that stresses that China is “different,” which is heavily influenced by Western-centered thinking patterns and biases. He emphasized that cross-cultural exchange is the glue that binds the world together. Countries should strengthen the cultivation of cross-cultural talents to promote exchange and cooperation, and work together to establish a global trade system that aligns with the interests of the vast majority of nations.
Zhang Jinling stated that the significance of cross-cultural integration lies in the fact that civilizations can appreciate each other’s beauty while valuing their own. China and Europe should, on the basis of equality and mutual respect, appreciate and support each other, discover the beauty in each other’s cultures, and deepen the exchange and mutual learning between their civilizations to achieve common progress.
Dietrich emphasized that open and collaborative innovation is a prerequisite for sustainable growth of the cultural and creative industries and of a prosperous creative economy. Hence, long-term prosperity can only be realised if continents work together. We must build bridges between China and Europe, not tariff walls. Collaboration in trade, science, technology, culture, and education between the two regions can be promoted through talent exchanges.
In his video address, Zhao Yongsheng noted that current exchanges between China and France, and China and Europe in general, especially in the fields of humanities and education, are facing numerous challenges. He cautioned against the gradual “instrumentalization” of these exchanges. On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, he called for greater interaction between young students from both sides and the strengthening of cultural cooperation in various fields.
Bergemann highlighted the difference between the education systems of China and Europe. He said every education system has its strengths and weaknesses, noting that we should use the best of both: China’s efficiency and technological progress and Europe’s emphasis on creativity, collaboration, and personal development. This way, we can create an education system that prepares young people for the challenges of the future.
CICG and the Leading Group for Talent Work of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee sign a strategic cooperation agreement
During the forum, Yang Jianping, director of the Personnel Department of the CICG, and He Yongjiang, deputy director of the Beijing Talent Work Bureau, signed a strategic cooperation agreement on talent exchange and collaboration on behalf of CICG and the Leading Group for Talent Work of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee. This agreement aims to further expand areas of cooperation, deepen collaborative measures, and consolidate practical results, all in order to promote the high-quality development of international communication and enhance the development of high-level talents in Beijing. Liu from CICG, and Zhang Ruobing, director of the Beijing Talent Work Bureau, witnessed the signing.
In her concluding remarks, Zhao Lijun, president of the CICG Center for Europe and Africa (China Today), stated that after in-depth discussions, participants reached a broad consensus: the cultivation of cross-cultural talents is a key driving force for China-Europe relations and global development. Cross-cultural competence plays an irreplaceable role in cultural integration, and education, training, and practice are effective ways to improve cross-cultural management and governance capabilities. These shared insights will provide a solid foundation and important guidance for further deepening China-Europe talent exchanges and cooperation.
Participants pose for a group photo during the forum
The 2024 China-Europe Talent Forum was held in Beijing on October 15. With the theme of Sharing Together, Growing Together, Winning Together – Bridging Continents: Fostering Future-Fit Talent Development, the forum invited more than 240 Chinese and foreign guests to participate in in-depth exchanges and dialogues and promote cooperation between China and Europe in talent innovation.
The event, which consisted of one main forum and six sub-forums, was co-hosted by the Beijing Talent Work Bureau and Switzerland’s Adecco Group. During the main forum, renowned Chinese and European scholars, representatives of international organizations, Nobel laureates, academicians and experts, heads of well-known think tanks, executives of multinational enterprises, and other guests conducted in-depth exchanges and dialogues to discuss China-Europe talent cooperation and innovation within the context of globalization. The sub-forums focused on the themes of youth, education, scientific and technological talents, culture, economy and trade, and international sports. Attendees had in-depth discussions on the key role of talents in the development of China-Europe relations, and further promoted practical ways for cooperation.
Du Zhanyuan, president of China International Communications Group, presenting a keynote speech.
Yin Li, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech, and former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin delivered a video speech. Yin Yong, mayor of Beijing, presided over the opening ceremony. Deng Li, vice foreign minister of China, Jürg Burri, Swiss ambassador to China, Du Zhanyuan, president of China International Communications Group (CICG), Gong Qihuang, president of Peking University, and Jean-Christophe Deslarzes, chair of Adecco Group, each delivered keynote speeches.
During the forum, a number of talent cooperation projects were launched or unveiled. A Memorandum of Understanding in support of the operations of international science and technology organizations in Beijing was signed by the China Center for International Science and Technology Exchange, Beijing Talent Work Bureau, and Beijing Association for Science and Technology. It is part of Beijing’s efforts to build itself into an international hub of scientific and technological innovation. The GNIS China-Europe Innovation Center was launced by Beijing Overseas Talents Center and the government of Xicheng District to build a broad stage for the innovation and entrepreneurship of young talents from both China and Europe. The Internship Base between Peking University and Adecco Group was unveiled. It provides internship opportunities, professional internship advice, and career consultation to achieve positive interaction between unviersities and enterprises and strive to improve the global career development ability of outstanding young students.
The 2024 Global City Talent Retention Index was released at the forum.
During the section of publicizing research results, Adecco Group released the 2024 Global Workforce of the Future Report, which delved into a wide range of key topics concerning enterprises and workers worldwide, including employability skills, work practice, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), employee welfare, and the impact of artificial intelligence on the labor market. With up-to-date opinions on the trend of workforce, this report provides employers with insights into future strategic planning.
Source: Switzerland – Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport
Federal Department of Foreign Affairs
Bern, 17.10.2024 – The first day of the Ukraine Mine Action Conference 2024 ended today with the presentation of the Lausanne Call for Action, which reaffirms the support of the majority of the countries present for humanitarian demining in Ukraine and around the world. The appeal calls for the needs of victims and disabled people to be addressed and promoting partnership and innovation to increase effectiveness in mine action. The conference, held in Lausanne at the EHL Hospitality Business School, brings together representatives of states, international organisations and partners in humanitarian demining.
61 delegations met on 17 and 18 October 2024 in Lausanne for the Ukraine Mine Action Conference 2024 (UMAC2024). At the end of the first high-level day, the Lausanne Call for Action was adopted, calling for concrete action by states on humanitarian demining in Ukraine. This includes, for example, the swift and safe rehabilitation of agricultural areas, the economic and social reintegration of victims with disabilities, the promotion of international cooperation between the various partners active on the ground, and the exchange of experience and knowledge to foster innovative methods and technologies that increase the effectiveness of mine action at a global level. The text was presented by Switzerland and Ukraine, together with Croatia, which hosted the last mine action conference, and Japan, which will host the 2025 edition.
Civil population, partnerships and innovation at centre of debate
The event, hosted jointly by Switzerland and Ukraine, features debates and discussions based on three pillars – people, partners and progress – with the aim of highlighting the crucial importance of humanitarian demining as an integral part of the country’s economic and social reconstruction. The conference was opened by the Swiss president, Viola Amherd and the Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal. The Swiss president emphasised in her speech that humanitarian demining is a priority for Switzerland: “Humanitarian demining is not only a security issue, but also a prerequisite for recovery, especially for the restoration of agricultural production and children’s education.”
Also speaking at UMAC2024 will be figures from the scientific community and civil society, such as British photographer Giles Duley, a landmine survivor and UN Global Advocate for persons with disabilities in conflict situations and peacebuilding situations, and philanthropist Howard G. Buffett, chairman and CEO of the Howard G. Buffett foundation.
Switzerland’s concrete support for humanitarian demining
During the conference, the head of the FDFA, Ignazio Cassis, reiterated the importance of international cooperation in humanitarian demining and reaffirmed Switzerland’s commitment to the reconstruction of Ukraine, based on the Lugano Principles adopted in 2022. He also pointed out that the Federal Council decided last week to grant an additional CHF 30 million to the Fondation suisse de déminage (FSD) to extend its activities in the Kharkiv and Kherson regions until 2027. “Thanks to partners such as FSD and the International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, Switzerland is providing direct, effective support in Ukraine,” said Cassis. Since February 2022, the Swiss federal government has implemented various measures to support those affected by the war and allocated around CHF 3.7 billion. Last year the Federal Council approved CHF 100 million in support over four years, earmarked exclusively for mine action in Ukraine.
Switzerland reiterates solidarity with Ukraine
At the UMAC2024, a delegation from the Federal Council, led by President Viola Amherd, met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. The meeting was dedicated to possible steps towards peace, reconstruction and solidarity with Ukraine in the face of the energy shortage in the upcoming winter months. The Swiss delegation, which included Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, emphasised Switzerland’s continued and long-term solidarity with Ukraine.
Following the Summit on Peace in Ukraine at the Bürgenstock resort in June, the two sides discussed further possible substantive steps towards a lasting and just peace in Ukraine. For Switzerland, it is clear that any solution must respect international law and the UN Charter. Switzerland remains ready to offer its good offices with the aim of supporting firm steps towards the inclusion of both parties. The thematic follow-up conference scheduled to be held in Montreal at the end of October on the human dimension, the fate of prisoners of war, arbitrarily detained civilians and abducted children was also discussed. A further important topic of discussion was Switzerland’s support for Ukraine and the reconstruction effort, to which the Federal Council attaches strategic importance.
The Vaud cantonal police are implementing the necessary security measures for the UMAC2024, adapted to the assessment of the situation and in close cooperation with the Federal Office of Police (fedpol). The Swiss Armed Forces provide them with support, in particular in the areas of personnel transport, logistics, air surveillance and air transport.
Address for enquiries
FDFA Communication Federal Palace West Wing CH-3003 Bern, Switzerland Tel. Press service: +41 58 460 55 55 E-mail: kommunikation@eda.admin.ch Twitter: @SwissMFA
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janet Davies, Respiratory Allergy Stream Co-chair, National Allergy Centre of Excellence; Professor and Head, Allergy Research Group, Queensland University of Technology
Hay fever (or allergic rhinitis) is a long-term inflammatory condition that’s incredibly common. It affects about one-quarter of Australians.
Symptoms vary but can include sneezing, itchy eyes and a runny or blocked nose. Hay fever can also contribute to sinus and ear infections, snoring, poor sleep and asthma, as well as lower performance at school or work.
But many people didn’t have hay fever as a child, and only develop symptoms as a teenager or adult.
Here’s how a combination of genetics, hormones and the environment can lead to people developing hay fever later in life.
Remind me, what is hay fever?
Hay fever is caused by the nose, eyes and throat coming into contact with a substance to which a person is allergic, known as an allergen.
Common sources of outside allergens include airborne grass, weed or tree pollen, and mould spores. Pollen allergens can be carried indoors on clothes, and through open windows and doors.
Depending on where you live, you may be exposed to a range of pollen types across the pollen season, but grass pollen is the most common trigger of hay fever. In some regions the grass pollen season can extend from spring well into summer and autumn.
How does hay fever start?
Hay fever symptoms most commonly start in adolescence or young adulthood. One study found 7% of children aged six had hay fever, but that grew to 44% of adults aged 24.
Before anyone has hay fever symptoms, their immune system has already been “sensitised” to specific allergens, often allergens of grass pollen. Exposure to these allergens means their immune system has made a particular type of antibody (known as IgE) against them.
During repeated or prolonged exposure to an allergen source such as pollen, a person’s immune system may start to respond to another part of the same allergen, or another allergen within the pollen. Over time, these new allergic sensitisations can lead to development of hay fever and possibly other conditions, such as allergic asthma.
Why do some people only develop hay fever as an adult?
1. Environmental factors
Some people develop hay fever as an adult simply because they’ve had more time to become sensitised to specific allergens.
Migration or moving to a new location can also change someone’s risk of developing hay fever. This may be due to exposure to different pollens, climate and weather, green space and/or air quality factors.
A number of studies show people who have migrated from low- and middle-income countries to higher-income countries may be at a higher risk of developing hay fever. This may due to local environmental conditions influencing expression of genes that regulate the immune system.
2. Hormonal factors
Hormonal changes at puberty may also help drive the onset of hay fever. This may relate to sex hormones, such as oestrogen and progesterone, affecting histamine levels, immune regulation, and the response of cells in the lining of the nose and lower airways.
3. Genetic factors
Our genes underpin our risk of hay fever, and whether this and other related allergic disease persists.
For instance, babies with the skin condition eczema (known as atopic dermatitis) have a three times greater risk of developing hay fever (and asthma) later in life.
Having a food allergy in childhood is also a risk factor for developing hay fever later in life. In the case of a peanut allergy, that risk is more than 2.5 times greater.
What are the best options for treatment?
Depending on where you live, avoiding allergen exposures can be difficult. But pollen count forecasts, if available, can be useful. These can help you decide whether it’s best to stay inside to reduce your pollen exposure, or to take preventative medications.
If you have mild, occasional hay fever symptoms, you can take non-drowsy antihistamines, which you can buy at the pharmacy.
However, for more severe or persistent symptoms, intranasal steroid sprays, or an intranasal spray containing a steroid with antihistamine, are the most effective treatments. However, it is important to use these regularly and correctly.
Allergen immunotherapy, also known as desensitisation, is an effective treatment for people with severe hay fever symptoms that can reduce the need for medication and avoiding allergens.
However, it involves a longer treatment course (about three years), usually with the supervision of an allergy or immunology specialist.
When should people see their doctor?
It is important to treat hay fever, because symptoms can significantly affect a person’s quality of life. A GP can:
recommend treatments for hay fever and can guide you to use them correctly
organise blood tests to confirm which allergen sensitisations (if any) are present, and whether these correlate with your symptoms
screen for asthma, which commonly exists with hay fever, and may require other treatments
arrange referrals to allergy or immunology specialists, if needed, for other tests, such as allergen skin prick testing, or to consider allergen immunotherapy if symptoms are severe.
Janet Davies receives funding from the ARC, NHMRC, Department of Health and Ageing, and MRFF. She has conducted research on diagnostics in collaboration with Abionic SA, Switzerland, supported by the National Foundation for Medical Research Innovation with co-contribution from Abionic. Her research has been supported by in-kind services or materials from Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology (Queensland), Abacus Dx (Australia), Stallergenes (France), Stallergenes Greer (Australia), Swisens (Switzerland), Kenelec (Australia), and ThermoFisher (Sweden), as well as cash or in-kind contributions from Partner Organisations for the NHMRC AusPollen Partnership Project GNT1116107, Australasian Society Clinical Immunology Allergy, Asthma Australia; Stallergenes Australia; Bureau Meteorology, Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation, Federal Office of Climate and Meteorology Switzerland. QUT owns patents relevant to grass pollen allergy diagnosis (US PTO 14/311944 issued, AU2008/316301 issued) for which Janet Davies is an inventor. She is the Executive Lead, Repository and Discovery Pillar, and Co-Chair Respiratory Allergy Stream for the National Allergy Centre of Excellence.
Unrelated to this article, Joy Lee has received funding from the Centre of Research Excellence in Treatable Traits in Asthma, Sanofi, Fondazione Menarini and GSK. This funding support was solely used for presenting at educational meetings in asthma and travel grants to attend international meetings and conferences in asthma and allergic diseases. She has been on advisory boards for Tezepelumab (Astra Zeneca). She is affiliated with the National Allergy Centre of Excellence as the co-chair of the Respiratory Allergy Leadership Group.
The Head of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia (UNVMIC), Carlos Ruiz Massieu, today (15 Oct) told the Security Council that “historic progress has been made” in the implementation of the peace agreement, “but much remains to be done.” He welcomed the rapid response plan, or “Plan de Choque” being developed by the Minister of the Interior and other stakeholders.
The plan, Ruiz Massieu said, “is a new instrument that should serve to energize implementation.”
The UNVMIC Chief said, “we remain encouraged by the Government’s commitment to advancing the rural reform chapter of the Agreement – provisions that have a transformative potential, attacking structural causes of the conflict, but which had lagged in their implementation in previous years.”
He said that as a result, “more land is being distributed and formalized for those in need, bringing the promised benefits of peace to landless peasants and those dispossessed of it during the conflict.”
Ruiz Massieu said, “in some territories, signatories to the Agreement and social leaders continue to be the target of violence, pressure and threats from armed actors fighting for territorial control and strategic routes linked to illicit economies.”
He noted that since the beginning of the reintegration process, five former territorial areas for training and reintegration (TATRs) have had to be relocated for these reasons
Ruiz Massieu said, “the difficult situation in some areas continues to impact the lives of communities that are caught in the crossfire and subjected to condemnable phenomena such as the recruitment of minors, displacement and confinement.”
Colombia’s Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo for his part said, “with the firm commitment to fulfil what has been agreed and to territorialize peace, we have developed a new strategic framework for peace, where effective and comprehensive compliance with the 2016 agreement becomes an inescapable requirement, unavoidable for the sustainability of strategic proposals surrounding territorial transformation.”
On women’s participation in negotiation and peacebuilding, he said it was “not only is a question of justice, but it is crucial to ensure stronger and more durable agreements.”
For this reason, he continued, “the Colombian government has formulated and is implementing a feminist foreign policy linked to the precepts of the women, peace and security agenda. Included in Security Council Resolution 1325”
Outside the Council, Switzerland’s representative Riccarda Christiana Chanda read a statement on behalf of Ecuador, France, Guyana, Japan, Malta, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States on Women Peace and Security.
Chanda said, “during a visit of the Security Council to Colombia in February of this year, we were able to engage meaningfully with former combatants, victim representatives, women’s organizations, indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities to discuss the progress made and remaining obstacles in the comprehensive implementation of the peace agreement. And what we have witnessed over and over again, was the urgent call for improved security guarantees, equitable land distribution, and the successful social, political, and economic reintegration of former combatants as well as the crucial implementation of gender provisions and the ethnic chapter of the Peace Agreement.”
UNVMIC was established by the UN Security Council pursuant to resolution 2366 (2017), adopted unanimously on 10 July 2017. The resolution followed a joint request for UN support from the Government of Colombia and the then Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–People’s Army (FARC-EP).
In reference to the announcement on the valuation made on October 15 of 7-year and 15-year benchmark bonds denominated in euro with maturities of October 22, 2031 and October 22, 2039, respectively, the Ministry of Finance presents additional information on the structure of purchasers. The structure of bond purchasers was diversified. The buyers of 7-year bonds were investors from: Great Britain and Ireland (24%), Germany and Austria (17%), Benelux countries (11%), France (8%), Scandinavian countries (8%), Asia (8%), Southern Europe (7%), Central and Eastern Europe (excluding Poland) (4%), Poland (3%), United States (3%), Switzerland (2%) and other countries (5%). The entity structure of investors of 7-year bonds included: investment funds (47%), banks (22%), central banks and public institutions (18%), hedge funds (9%), insurance institutions and pension funds (3%) and other financial institutions (1%). The buyers of 15-year bonds were investors from: Germany and Austria (27%), Great Britain and Ireland (25%), Southern Europe (14%), France (9%), Central and Eastern Europe (excluding Poland) (6%), Poland (5%), Scandinavian countries (4%), Switzerland (4%), Benelux countries (2%) and others (4%). The entity structure of investors of 15-year bonds included: investment funds (58%), banks (15%), insurance institutions and pension funds (13%), hedge funds (12%), central banks and public institutions (1%) and other financial institutions (1%).
