Federal finances National Council waives some of the foreign aid cuts

Next year, foreign aid funds are to be cut by CHF 170 million compared to the Federal Council's draft. This was decided by the National Council on Wednesday. It is thus taking a step towards the Council of States. But there is still a big difference.

In the first round of discussions on the 2025 federal budget, the Councils were unable to agree on how much development and foreign aid should be cut. The Council of States wants to reduce spending by a total of CHF 30 million. The National Council cut foreign aid funding by CHF 250 million last week.

The upper chamber does not want to go that far after all. It decided to cut another 170 million francs. This means CHF 135 million less for bilateral development cooperation, CHF 10 million less in contributions to multilateral organizations and CHF 25 million less for economic cooperation at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco).

On Thursday, the Council of States will once again discuss this difference.

SDA