Eastern Swiss governments want to work more closely together

"We all benefit from a strong, networked Eastern Switzerland," said the President of the Government of St. Gallen, Susanne Hartmann (center), at the media orientation in St. Gallen. They therefore want to work more closely together on strategically important topics.

Annual meetings of the governments are now planned, at which the fields of action for closer cooperation will be discussed and defined. One example of this is the establishment of the international Lake Constance region as part of the Swiss spatial concept.

For the mayor of Ausserrhoden, Yves-Noël Balmer (SP), spatial planning and digitalization are among the topics that will be tackled jointly in the future. Joint resources could be developed and used for data protection. Another area is the prevention of natural hazards. There are no cantonal borders for streams and rivers.

Analysis is important

Walter Schönholzer (FDP), President of the Thurgau cantonal government, emphasized that they are already working well together on many issues, better than is sometimes perceived from the outside.

However, closer cooperation was not possible everywhere. There are also areas where the conditions are too different. As an example, he cited hospital policy, where the two cantons of Appenzell and St. Gallen agreed on a joint hospital list, but Thurgau withdrew from the process.

What is new is that the fields of action for cooperation are being sought in a targeted manner, said Innerrhoden Landammann Roland Inauen (non-party). Previously, this had been characterized by randomness. Analyzing where the potential lies is very important.