On the final day of the three-day winter conference in Klosters, the Swiss Trade Association (SGV) welcomed the head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER), Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin. Before Parmelin's appearance, a presentation titled ‘The guiding hand of the state – on subsidies and regulations’ by Eric Scheidegger, Head of the Directorate for Economic Policy and Deputy Director of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO, had launched the Friday morning. Scheidegger noted that the perception of the administrative burden in the economy – here it remains the main concern – and the population is different.

The Corporate Relief Act and the regulatory impact assessment are part of a toolbox for ‘good regulation’. In addition, the proposals of the Gaillard Group on the review of tasks and subsidies are important. Even in the (unlikely) event that all of them were fully implemented, the growth in expenditure would continue to rise. Therefore, there can be no question of ‘breaking the state through savings’, as the left loudly complains.

‘GMV instead of ESG'

Beat Brechbühl, a lawyer and managing partner at Kellerhals Carrard, gave a witty presentation on the tiresome topic of ESG regulation. The current sustainability religion of ESG – environmental, social and corporate governance – prioritises form over substance, with sustainability reports acting as ‘sedatives and smoke bombs’, and a policy of ‘one step forward, two steps back’ on regulation cannot be sustainable per se, said Brechbühl. ‘ESG reduces added value and is therefore particularly harmful to SMEs.’ Brechbühl called for ‘common sense instead of ESG’: common sense instead of declaration obligations à gogo.

Regarding the new corporate responsibility initiative 2.0, which, according to the initiators, apparently ‘does not affect’ SMEs, Brechbühl said: ‘These are the sounds of a shawm; the real goal is to divide the economy.’

Changing mindsets

In the discussion ‘Switzerland – in the middle of a regulatory jungle?’, National Councillors Lars Guggisberg (SVP/BE) and Heinz Theiler (FDP/SZ), Daniel Wyss, President of the Swiss Gunsmiths and Arms Dealers Association, and Urs Furrer, Director of the Swiss Trade Association, met.

‘The left has managed to get the general public to equate ‘the economy’ with big business,’ Guggisberg noted. ’We have to change that, otherwise we will lose more votes.’

Theiler pointed out that large service providers were passing on regulations to SMEs in order to prove their own sustainability.

Wyss used the example of the arms industry to show how banks and insurance companies terminate long-standing customer relationships at short notice for image reasons, ‘even though we are always there for the army and the police, as well as for all those security services that protect these service providers, and support them with our work.’

Furrer pointed out that regulations – including in the area of ESG – are repeatedly misused as a competitive tool, and made an appeal to politicians: ‘Think of SMEs whenever you decide on regulations.’ After all, Switzerland's more than 600,000 SMEs account for a whopping 99.8 per cent of all companies in our country – not nothing, you might think.