Time.news – After last year’s postponement due to the pandemic, the sixth edition of the biennial Forum for dialogue between Italy and Switzerland which this year has as its theme “From Dante to Fintech”.
An opportunity to take stock of relations between the two neighboring countries that share the language and over 750 kilometers of borders but also very close economic ties. “Italy exports more to Switzerland than it exports to China, Japan and Brazil combined”, the Italian ambassador in Bern, Silvio Mignano, explains to Time.news, “and yet at times we take this relationship a little too much for grantedit is thought that there is no need to work too hard to strengthen relationships “.
Italy is Switzerland’s third largest trading partner and Switzerland is the eighth country for investments in Italy with € 16 billion that have created 78,000 jobs. “It would take on the part of the Italian public opinion the awareness of how important this country issmall in size and population, 8 million, but very rich and dynamic “, underlines the 53-year-old Italian diplomat.
Four work tables the Forum will be divided into: Fintceh and sustainable finance, health as a common action area after the pandemic, migration between old challenges and new unknowns, climate challenge and the energy issue.
The Swiss ambassador in Rome, Monika Shmutz Kirgoz, also speaks of “really excellent” relations: Italy and Switzerland “exchange one billion euros a week”, underlined in an interview with Time.news, and “the love of Swiss for Made in Italy is such that eight million Swiss buy much more from Italy than China and India combined “. A love that can also be seen from the tourist flows: “I am confident that the figure of over three million Swiss tourists who had visited Italy in 2019the last year before the pandemic, “said the 54-year-old Swiss diplomat.
In the past, relations between the two countries have been marked by integration difficulties for the Italians who emigrated to Switzerland, but today the picture has changed, the two ambassadors agree. “I have the impression that today being Italian in Switzerland has a very different importance than in the past”, assures Mignani, “we are facing the third, perhaps the fourth generation of immigrants and we have a strong, total integration. Italians in Switzerland they hold important positions, members of Parliament, cantonal councilors, university rectors, such as that of the Zurich Polytechnic, Gunther Dissertori, or Gianandrea Noseda who is the musical director of the Zurich Opera “.
“There is great admiration and love for Italy”, says Ambassador Schmutz Kirgoz, “especially we German-speaking Swiss this desire for Italy. Today Switzerland is the European country with the highest percentage of foreigners, 30%. We are talking about 300,000 Italians living in Switzerland, for the Italian embassy there are 600,000 because they also include those with dual citizenship. A very large and very important community in universities and in the economic and innovation engine of our country “.
One of the knots in bilateral relations is linked to the precious work of the 76,000 cross-border commuters who cross the border from Italy every day to go to work in Switzerland. “In recent years we have reached a series of agreements that have resolved many outstanding issues”, explains the Italian ambassador, “in 2020 we signed the agreement that resolves the taxation of cross-border commuters. For the new ones, and only from 2033 for the elderly, the taxation will be applied directly in Italy “.
As for rail connections, another sore point, Mignani recalled that “the doubling of the Monte Ceneri tunnel has been opened and work is underway to improve the stretch from Domodossola, for which the Swiss government has also allocated an extraordinary sum. for works on the Italian side “.
Switzerland is taking on an increasingly prominent role in foreign policy as evidenced by the partial exception made to its 500 years of neutrality for adhere to EU sanctions against Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. “Switzerland is still neutral because neutrality does not mean indifference”, emphasizes the ambassador, “the Confederation has been a member of the United Nations for 20 years and will also have a non-permanent seat since January. We remain neutral because neutrality is above all a military question but we support the condemnation of the Russian invasion “.
The Swiss national football team, after having contributed to the exclusion of the Azzurri, will play the World Cup in Qatar in a month, inserted in an iron group with Brazil, Serbia and Cameroon. “I didn’t even dare to think that Switzerland would have eliminated Italy but then it went like this”, explains Schmutz Kirgoz, “one more reason to be optimistic”.