Motor fan Walter Wobmann from the SVP now has to combat noise – not everyone likes that

The SVP politician from Solothurn – whose work as a journeyman is considered the minaret initiative – has always thrown his passion for fast two-wheelers into the political arena.

Now, after 20 years as a national councilor, the country’s top motorcyclist is stepping down from the political stage. The 66-year-old would like to make room for young people and concentrate more on his hobby, as he revealed to the motorcycle magazine ‘moto.ch’ in September. Nevertheless, he will continue to cause a stir in the Federal Palace in the future. Or is it much ado about nothing?

Unbeknownst to the public, the Federal Council recently elected the incumbent President of the Swiss Federation of Motorcyclists as a member of the Federal Commission for Noise Abatement (EKLB). The owner of a Kawasaki Z 750 – company slogan: “The Z750 always has the power you need” – is now fighting the noise? The elections raise questions.

Federal councilor Albert Rösti is due to comment on the issue in the National Council on Monday. SP state councilor Gabriela Suter wants to know to what extent Wobmann qualifies for scientific expertise in the field of noise control. Suter fears that the committee will become politicized. She is also surprised that in addition to Wobmann, Olivier Fantino, director of the Road Switzerland Association and husband of FDP state councilor Johanna Gapany, has also been elected to the noise control committee. Suter is also surprised that the committee suddenly has 17 members, while a maximum of 15 are planned.

Questions about questions. But anyone who examines extra-parliamentary committees such as the EKLB is not surprised.

There are extra-parliamentary committees for almost everything: stable facilities, surveys of youth and recruits, nuclear security or space issues. A total of 110 committees with 1,600 members. The list of names of those elected is 243 pages long.

Wobmann is in good political company. Other outgoing national councilors have also received new orders. For example, Ursula Schneider Schüttel (SP/FR) is chairman of the Federal Commission against Racism, Ida Glanzmann (Centre/LU) heads the Commission for Telematics in the field of rescue and safety and Andreas Aebi (SVP/BE) is on the Commission for the Switzerland Landscape Fund.

The committees advise the Federal Council and the administration. Sometimes they also make decisions. As a rule, members receive a daily meeting allowance of 300 to 500 francs. This costs the taxpayer 7 million francs per year. That doesn’t sound like much, but in individual cases it can cost money – such as with the rather bloated Film Funding Commission.

Like any other committee, it may not have more than 15 members. But she has 44. In 2016, the federal government paid them 1,416 daily allowances, for a total of 424,800 francs. The high number of committee members is justified by the fact that this is the only way to guarantee independence and take into account possible conflicts of interest and the stricter abstention obligations.

Some committees are also lucrative for the individual member. The so-called “market-oriented commissions” act as regulatory and supervisory authorities and have extensive powers. It was they who brought the Audit Committee (GPK) of the Council of States into action.

The trigger was the Elcom Electricity Commission. It oversees electricity supply in Switzerland and monitors electricity prices. It acts as an “independent, national regulator of the electricity sector”. Some observers therefore rubbed their eyes when the Federal Council elected the retiring Bernese BDP State Councilor Werner Luginbühl as the new president of Elcom on November 27, 2019.

The state government therefore appointed an electricity lobbyist for this position. For six years, Luginbühl was chairman of the board of directors of Kraftwerke Oberhasli AG, a subsidiary of BKW. It was not just the lack of independence that attracted criticism. Questions were also asked about how he came to the position of influence.

After his election, Luginbühl told the “Observer”: “I once told someone that I would also be interested in this job. I was asked later.” However, the position was never publicly announced, although this is common for important federal jobs. The fact that this is the case with the Elcom board is also reflected in the salary: Luginbühl receives 150,000 francs for his 60 percent workload.

The GPK of the Council of States also became involved in 2021 because of Elcom. She examined the 110 extra-parliamentary committees. The majority do their work satisfactorily. The Committee on Vaccination Questions, whose chairman Christoph Berger became famous during the pandemic, has a clear mandate. The Commission played a key role in the vaccination campaign.

But many committees remain unclear. What tasks do they have and what benefits do they provide? For some, the supervisory authority’s judgment is devastating: there are committees “that meet only rarely, never or only because they exist,” according to the GPK report.

For example, there is the committee of experts that assesses the feasibility of life sentences (FaKo). It must assess, on the basis of scientific evidence, whether a person detained for life can be treated in such a way that he or she no longer poses a danger to the public. However, the responsible correctional authorities have not submitted a single case to the Commission in the nine years of its existence. The committee meets once a year to facilitate informal exchanges among its members.

The Commission for the Harmonization of Direct Taxes of the Federation, Cantons and Municipalities (KHST) did not meet at all between 2016 and 2019. According to GPK, the government has indicated that there is “no need for the committee”. In 2020, the experts met for a meeting. Main agenda item: The search for new topics.

According to GPK, this is not an isolated case. “In some cases, committees frantically search for tasks within the scope of their mandate to justify their existence,” the report says. If the members are already aware of this: “Individually interviewed members of such committees no longer knew that they were members of a committee,” the GPK writes.

It also happens that the federal government is no longer dependent on expertise – as was the case with the Federal Migration Commission (EKM). “The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) states that it does not need the advice of the EKM because it is now in direct contact with the relevant stakeholders.”

Or the authorities do not trust that a committee will do the job at all. While the Corona crisis put the Vaccination Committee in the spotlight, another committee disappeared into thin air. The Federal Pandemic Commission (EKP) is tasked with playing an active role in tackling the pandemic.

Its chairman, the Genevan infectious disease specialist Anne Iten, therefore offered the services of the committee to the federal government in the spring of 2020. But the Federal Office for Public Health (BAG) never responded. Instead, the government set up an additional committee, the task force. Due to a lack of resources, the EKP could not have played a more active role, the BAG later justified itself.

For the GPK, these examples show that the board must regularly check which tasks extra-parliamentary committees have and whether they are still necessary. To this end, general elections would be held every four years. But departments are not taking consistent action. The regulator criticizes that “outdated” committees will not be abolished.

There are several reasons for this: for example, it has been argued that committees may be faced with work in the near future where they would like to rely on existing structures. The government also claims that certain committees are enshrined in law and that revisions to the law are necessary. The board had insight into the committee, which had not met for years. The Commission for the Harmonization of Direct Taxes of the Confederation, Cantons and Municipalities no longer appears on the latest list. She clearly hasn’t found any new topics.