Swiss voters were invited to vote during a vote on Sunday May 15 on three reforms: organ donation, renewal of funding for Frontex, the European border agency, and the “Lex Netflix”, cinema law. They said yes by a clear majority to the three subjects, according to the first estimates of the polling institute gfs.bern.
According to these early trends, thehe Swiss voted 72% in favor of their country’s participation in strengthening the Frontex agency. They also voted 58% for an obligation for streaming services to invest in Swiss audiovisual. They finally accepted at 59% a proposal aimed at increasing organ donations, thanks to the transition to the model of presumed consent, as in France. The final results will be known at the end of the day.
The European reform of Frontex aims to provide the agency with a permanent international corps of 10,000 border and coast guards by 2027. It is planned that Switzerland will provide more personnel – around 40 posts maximum against 6 currently around – and increases its annual financial contribution to 61 million Swiss francs (58 million euros) against 24 million in 2021.
The new audiovisual regulations, called “Lex Netflix”, will force streaming platforms to invest 4% of their turnover made in Switzerland in national creation, by participating in productions or by paying a tax. which will be used to support the cinema. Streaming platforms will also have to offer 30% European content, as is already the case in the European Union.
With this development on organ donation, the Federal Council and Parliament hope for an increase in the number of donations. According to the Swiss authorities, most European countries (France, Italy, Austria, Spain, etc.) already apply the model of presumed consent, and record on average a higher percentage of donations than Switzerland. But as the Swissinfo site points out, drafting an implementing order could take years. Time to create a national register and launch information campaigns.