{"id":28017,"date":"2026-03-09T08:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T08:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/28017\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T08:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T08:31:13","slug":"swiss-government-opts-against-crackdown-on-honorary-consuls-and-shady-dealings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/28017\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss government opts against crackdown on honorary consuls and shady dealings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Honorary<\/p>\n

The Federal Council, the cabinet of ministers, will not tighten control over the work of honorary consuls, despite demands from MPs. <\/p>\n

Keystone \/ Anthony Anex <\/p>\n

Despite a series of\u00a0dubious incidents\u00a0involving foreign honorary consuls in Switzerland, the\u00a0government has decided against\u00a0tightening\u00a0oversight. Instead, it\u00a0has settled for a\u00a0review\u00a0of\u00a0existing procedures, even though the Senate\u2019s\u00a0control\u00a0committee had called for stricter measures.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

This content was published on <\/p>\n

March 9, 2026 – 09:00\n<\/p>\n

Art smuggling, corruption, fraud, drug and arms trafficking, terrorism financing, sexual abuse and even murder. In 2022,\u00a0an international journalistic investigationExternal link<\/a>\u00a0uncovered more than 500 cases worldwide of honorary consuls who had run\u00a0into trouble with\u00a0the law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Switzerland was not spared. The investigation notably highlighted\u00a0the case of\u00a0the\u00a0Swiss\u00a0billionaire art collector Urs E.\u00a0SchwarzenbachExternal link<\/a>,\u00a0the honorary consul for Mongolia\u00a0in Switzerland\u00a0from 2010 to 2022.\u00a0He\u00a0was convicted for\u00a0failing to declare\u00a0hundreds of artworks imported into Switzerland, some of them while he was still in office.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following the publication, parliament\u2019s control committees called on the Parliamentary Control of the Administration to evaluate Swiss honorary consulates abroad as well as foreign honorary consulates in Switzerland.<\/p>\n

Today, 122 honorary consuls\u00a0representing\u00a065 countries are accredited in Switzerland. They are not career diplomats: alongside their honorary role, they pursue professional activities, often as entrepreneurs or lawyers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n More<\/p>\n

\"View<\/p>\n

More <\/p>\n

Swiss Abroad\n <\/p>\n

Switzerland expands voluntary honorary consul network <\/p>\n

\n

This content was published on <\/p>\n

Nov 4, 2025 <\/p>\n

Switzerland is strengthening its global network of honorary consuls. It now boasts 225 diplomatic representatives around the world. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Read more: Switzerland expands voluntary honorary consul network
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

However, honorary consuls benefit\u00a0from certain privileges and partial immunityExternal link<\/a>. For example, authorities in other countries may not seize documents they declare to be related to their official functions, nor search their luggage at the border. This raises a key question examined in the report: how does Switzerland select and\u00a0monitor\u00a0these individuals?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Parliamentary\u00a0Control of the\u00a0Administration\u2019s\u00a0evaluationExternal link<\/a>, published last November, shows that the\u00a0foreign ministry\u00a0views its responsibility for honorary consulates in Switzerland as limited. The\u00a0ministry\u00a0stresses that states\u00a0are responsible for\u00a0overseeing their own representations. When problematic cases have arisen, it has intervened only cautiously,\u00a0in order to\u00a0preserve bilateral relations with the countries concerned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several scandals uncovered\u00a0<\/p>\n

The report cites the case of Hermann\u00a0Beyeler,\u00a0the\u00a0honorary consul\u00a0for\u00a0Belarus in Switzerland since 2019External link<\/a>. In 2024, the NGO\u00a0Libereco\u00a0called for his dismissal, accusing him of damaging Switzerland\u2019s reputation and using his diplomatic status to advance his business interests. Newspapers from the\u00a0Tamedia\u00a0group revealed that he was conducting lucrative business with the regime of Alexander Lukashenko\u00a0and that\u00a0his company\u00a0had\u00a0become\u00a0one of the main suppliers to the Belarusian state monopoly for prosthetics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0foreign ministry\u00a0chose not to intervene with the embassy concerned, arguing that the accusations were of a moral nature and that no breach of the law had been\u00a0established.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a written response to Swissinfo,\u00a0Beyeler\u00a0firmly rejects the NGO\u2019s allegations and those reported in the media, which he describes as inaccurate and misleading. He says his company helped address an acute shortage of prosthetics in Belarus through Swiss deliveries. According to him, the accusations form part of a commercially motivated campaign involving competing suppliers from Estonia and the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The honorary consul stresses that his status did not serve his business interests.\u00a0Instead, he says,\u00a0he suffered significant disadvantages following publication of the articles and faced threats to his own safety and that of his family. He adds that no Swiss prosthetics deliveries were made to Belarus in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Parliamentary Control of the Administration\u00a0evaluation also notes that the\u00a0foreign ministry\u00a0is not always aware of problems. In 2021, the Pandora Papers revealed that Lithuania\u2019s honorary consul in Switzerland managed companies that concealed real estate assets belonging to Russian oligarchs. \u201cThe\u00a0Foreign Ministry\u2019s\u00a0protocol\u00a0department\u00a0was not aware of the reasons that led him to step down,\u201d the\u00a0evaluation\u00a0says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another criticism: the\u00a0foreign ministry\u00a0itself does not always apply its own guidelines for these representations. In principle, Switzerland accepts only one honorary consulate per linguistic region. In practice, however, it allows exceptions. For example, the\u00a0principality of Monaco, with just 15 nationals in Switzerland, has four honorary consulates, three of them\u00a0located\u00a0in the German-speaking region.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No fines for traffic offences<\/p>\n

Based on these findings, the Senate\u2019s\u00a0control\u00a0committee\u00a0called on the\u00a0governmentExternal link<\/a>\u00a0to respond more firmly to problematic cases. It recommended, in particular, that\u00a0the\u00a0foreign ministry\u00a0clarify admission procedures for honorary consuls. \u201cGiven the current global situation, marked by a persistently high risk of espionage in Switzerland, the authorities must reconsider their understanding of their role and their sense of responsibility,\u201d it wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As an example, the committee pointed out that the\u00a0ministry\u2019s\u00a0leniency\u00a0allowed one honorary consul to commit traffic offences with\u00a0complete\u00a0impunity. For several years, the individual accumulated\u00a0numerous\u00a0fines in different cantons, systematically invoking immunity to avoid paying them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0ministry\u00a0contacted him to remind him that honorary consuls\u2019 immunity covers only acts carried out in the exercise of their official functions. Despite this, he persisted until a criminal investigation was opened.<\/p>\n

The government\u00a0refuses to tighten the\u00a0rules<\/p>\n

On February 11, the\u00a0government\u00a0responded to the committee\u2019s criticism. Its\u00a0stance\u00a0shows little appetite for action. It pledges to review procedures relating to the establishment of honorary consulates, but\u00a0above all, it\u00a0reiterates that oversight of honorary consuls in Switzerland lies with the\u00a0mission\u00a0state. It is also that country, the government writes, \u201cwhich bears the primary reputational risk if the honorary consul it has appointed behaves inappropriately\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The government also stresses that honorary consuls enjoy immunity only within the scope of their official duties and must\u00a0comply with\u00a0Swiss law. It says that where there are indications of inappropriate or unlawful behaviour, the situation is assessed and the relevant services coordinate to determine\u00a0appropriate measures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These can range from a diplomatic d\u00e9marche with the embassy concerned demanding\u00a0compliance with the rules to\u00a0a\u00a0summons to\u00a0the\u00a0ambassador,\u00a0or\u00a0even revoking honorary consul status.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A system open to abuse?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carlo Sommaruga, a Social Democratic senator and member of the Senate\u2019s Control Committee, acknowledges that\u00a0Switzerland\u2019s room for manoeuvre is limited. \u201cIt is complicated to intervene in the appointment of honorary consuls by other states,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u201cHowever, the\u00a0foreign ministry\u00a0must act more firmly when a scandal or misconduct harms Switzerland as the host country.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The revelations of recent years raise broader questions about the system of honorary consuls: does it\u00a0allow\u00a0the concealment of dubious activities behind an honorary title and partial immunity? Sommaruga does not see a systemic problem. \u201cIt is possible that some individuals\u00a0seek\u00a0to become honorary consuls to hide such dealings, but I do not believe states deliberately appoint dubious individuals. That would run counter to their own interests,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Edited by\u00a0Samuel\u00a0Jaberg\/ds\u00a0<\/p>\n

Articles in this story <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Federal Council, the cabinet of ministers, will not tighten control over the work of honorary consuls, despite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[101,326,12148,496,16978,1457,334,41,17,2938],"class_list":{"0":"post-28017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-beat-swiss-politics","10":"tag-beat-swiss-position","11":"tag-diplomacy","12":"tag-espionage-and-intelligence","13":"tag-give-me-perspective","14":"tag-production-type-adaptation","15":"tag-swiss","16":"tag-switzerland","17":"tag-update-me"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116198289264279914","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}