Federal Act on the Federal Assembly

This Act reg­u­lates:

a.

the rights and du­ties of the mem­bers of the Fed­er­al As­sembly;

b.

the tasks and or­gan­isa­tion of the Fed­er­al As­sembly;

c.

the pro­ced­ure in the Fed­er­al As­sembly;

d.

pro­ced­ur­al re­la­tions between the Fed­er­al As­sembly and the Fed­er­al Coun­cil;

e.

pro­ced­ur­al re­la­tions between the Fed­er­al As­sembly and the fed­er­al courts.

¹The Na­tion­al Coun­cil and the Coun­cil of States shall con­vene reg­u­larly for or­din­ary ses­sions.

²Either coun­cil may de­cide to con­vene spe­cial ses­sions if the or­din­ary ses­sions are not suf­fi­cient to deal with the volume of busi­ness.

³One quarter of the mem­bers of a coun­cil or of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­quest that the coun­cils or the United Fed­er­al As­sembly be con­vened for an ex­traordin­ary ses­sion to deal with the fol­low­ing items of busi­ness:

a.

drafts by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil or of a Fed­er­al As­sembly com­mit­tee of a Fed­er­al As­sembly en­act­ment;

b.

identic­al mo­tions that have been sub­mit­ted in both cham­bers;

c.

elec­tions;

d.

de­clar­a­tions by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil or identic­al drafts sub­mit­ted in both cham­bers for de­clar­a­tions by the Na­tion­al Coun­cil and des Coun­cil of States.¹

⁴An or­din­ary or an ex­traordin­ary ses­sion is nor­mally held in both cham­bers in the same cal­en­dar week.²

¹Each mem­ber of the Fed­er­al As­sembly shall swear the oath or make the sol­emn prom­ise be­fore as­sum­ing of­fice.

²The per­sons elec­ted by the United Fed­er­al As­sembly shall swear their oath or make their sol­emn prom­ise be­fore the United Fed­er­al As­sembly fol­low­ing their elec­tion, un­less the law provides oth­er­wise.

³Any per­son who re­fuses to swear the oath or make the sol­emn prom­ise is pro­hib­ited from as­sum­ing of­fice.

⁴The oath is as fol­lows:

«I swear by Almighty God to up­hold the Con­sti­tu­tion and the law and to ful­fil the du­ties of my of­fice to the best of my abil­it­ies.»

⁵The sol­emn prom­ise is as fol­lows:

«I sol­emnly prom­ise to up­hold the Con­sti­tu­tion and the law and to ful­fil the du­ties of my of­fice to the best of my abil­it­ies.»

¹The meet­ings of the coun­cils and of the United Fed­er­al As­sembly are open to the pub­lic. The de­bates are pub­lished in full in the Of­fi­cial Bul­let­in of the Fed­er­al As­sembly. The de­tails of pub­lic­a­tion are reg­u­lated in an or­din­ance of the Fed­er­al As­sembly.

²For the pro­tec­tion of ma­jor se­cur­ity in­terests or for the pro­tec­tion of per­son­al pri­vacy, a meet­ing in cam­era may be re­ques­ted. The fol­low­ing have the right to make such a re­quest:

a.

a sixth of the mem­bers of either coun­cil or of the United Fed­er­al As­sembly;

b.

a ma­jor­ity of the mem­bers of a com­mit­tee;

c.

the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

³The de­bate on an ap­plic­a­tion for a meet­ing in cam­era is it­self held in cam­era.

⁴Any per­son who par­ti­cip­ates in a meet­ing in cam­era is ob­liged to pre­serve secrecy with re­gard to the pro­ceed­ings there­of.

¹The Coun­cils and their or­gans shall provide com­pre­hens­ive in­form­a­tion in good time about their activ­it­ies provided there are no over­rid­ing pub­lic or private in­terests that pre­vent this.

²The use of sound or im­age broad­casts from the As­sembly cham­bers, as well as the ac­cred­it­a­tion of journ­al­ists, is reg­u­lated in an or­din­ance of the Fed­er­al As­sembly or by the re­spect­ive Stand­ing Or­ders of the Coun­cils.

¹The mem­bers the Fed­er­al As­sembly (as­sembly mem­bers) have the right to sub­mit par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ives and par­lia­ment­ary pro­ced­ur­al re­quests and to pro­pose can­did­ates for elec­tion.

²They may sub­mit pro­pos­als re­lat­ing to pending busi­ness and pro­ced­ure.

³The right to speak and the time al­lowed for speeches may be lim­ited by the Stand­ing Or­ders of the Coun­cils.

⁴If a par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive, a mo­tion or a pos­tu­late is op­posed, a vote may be held only if the ori­gin­at­or has been giv­en the op­por­tun­ity to provide verbal jus­ti­fic­a­tion. In ad­di­tion, the per­son who first re­ques­ted re­jec­tion must at least be giv­en the right to speak.¹

¹The as­sembly mem­bers have the right to be provided with in­form­a­tion by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion and to in­spect doc­u­ments on any mat­ter of rel­ev­ance to the Con­fed­er­a­tion, provided this is re­quired for the ex­er­cise of their par­lia­ment­ary man­dates.

²An in­di­vidu­al as­sembly mem­ber has no right to in­form­a­tion:

a.

from the joint re­port­ing pro­ced­ure and de­lib­er­a­tions in Fed­er­al Coun­cil meet­ings;

b.

that is clas­si­fied as con­fid­en­tial or secret in the in­terests of state se­cur­ity or the in­tel­li­gence ser­vice, or the dis­clos­ure of which to un­au­thor­ised per­sons may be det­ri­ment­al to na­tion­al in­terests;

c.

that is treated as con­fid­en­tial for the pro­tec­tion of per­son­al pri­vacy.¹

³In the event of any dis­agree­ment between an as­sembly mem­ber and the Fed­er­al Coun­cil as to the ex­tent of rights to in­form­a­tion, the as­sembly mem­ber may call on the Presid­ing Col­lege of the coun­cil to which he or she be­longs. The Presid­ing Col­lege me­di­ates between the as­sembly mem­ber and the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

⁴If there is dis­agree­ment between an as­sembly mem­ber and the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, the Presid­ing Col­lege of the coun­cil has the fi­nal de­cision on wheth­er the in­form­a­tion is re­quired to ex­er­cise the rel­ev­ant par­lia­ment­ary man­date.

⁵As an al­tern­at­ive to per­mit­ting the in­spec­tion of doc­u­ments, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may sub­mit a re­port to an as­sembly mem­ber if there is dis­agree­ment between the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the as­sembly mem­ber as to wheth­er the as­sembly mem­ber has a right to in­form­a­tion in terms of para­graph 2 and the me­di­ation of Presid­ing Col­lege of the coun­cil is un­suc­cess­ful.

⁶The Presid­ing Col­lege of the coun­cil has an un­res­tric­ted right to in­spect the doc­u­ments of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion when pre­par­ing to me­di­ate.

The as­sembly mem­bers are bound by of­fi­cial secrecy where, through their of­fi­cial activ­it­ies, they ac­quire know­ledge of in­form­a­tion that must be kept secret or con­fid­en­tial in or­der to safe­guard over­rid­ing pub­lic or private in­terests, and in par­tic­u­lar in or­der to pro­tect per­son­al pri­vacy or to avoid pre­ju­dicing pending court pro­ceed­ings.

As­sembly mem­bers re­ceive from the Con­fed­er­a­tion a salary in re­spect of their par­lia­ment­ary activ­it­ies and a con­tri­bu­tion to cov­er the ex­penses that they in­cur in con­nec­tion there­with. The de­tails are reg­u­lated by the Par­lia­ment­ary Re­sources Act of 18 March 1988¹.

As­sembly mem­bers are ob­liged to at­tend the meet­ings of the coun­cils and com­mit­tees.

¹On as­sum­ing of­fice and at the start of every year, each as­sembly mem­ber must in­form his or her of­fice in writ­ing about his or her:

a.¹

pro­fes­sion­al activ­it­ies; if the as­sembly mem­ber is an em­ploy­ee, they must give in­form­a­tion about their po­s­i­tion and their em­ploy­er;

b.²

fur­ther activ­it­ies on man­age­ment or su­per­vis­ory com­mit­tees as well as ad­vis­ory com­mit­tees and sim­il­ar bod­ies of Swiss and for­eign busi­ness un­der­tak­ings, in­sti­tu­tions and found­a­tions un­der private and pub­lic law;

c.

activ­it­ies as a con­sult­ant or as a spe­cial­ist ad­viser to fed­er­al agen­cies;

d.

per­man­ent man­age­ment or con­sultancy activ­it­ies on be­half of Swiss or for­eign in­terest groups;

e.

par­ti­cip­a­tion in com­mit­tees or oth­er or­gans of the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

^1bisIn the case of activ­it­ies lis­ted in para­graph 1 let­ters b−e, the as­sembly mem­ber shall de­clare wheth­er the activ­ity is vol­un­tary or paid. The re­im­burse­ment of ex­penses is not re­garded as pay­ment for an activ­ity.³

²The Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices main­tain a pub­lic re­gister con­tain­ing the in­form­a­tion provided by as­sembly mem­bers.

³As­sembly mem­bers whose per­son­al in­terests are dir­ectly af­fected by any mat­ter be­ing con­sidered must in­dic­ate their per­son­al in­terest when mak­ing a state­ment in the coun­cil or in a com­mit­tee.

⁴Pro­fes­sion­al secrecy in terms of the Swiss Crim­in­al Code⁴ is re­served.

¹In ex­er­cising su­per­vis­ory con­trol in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 26, mem­bers of com­mit­tees and del­eg­a­tions shall re­cuse them­selves if they have a dir­ect per­son­al in­terest in any item of busi­ness or could be im­par­tial for any oth­er reas­ons. The rep­res­ent­a­tion of polit­ic­al in­terests, and in par­tic­u­lar those of com­munit­ies, parties or as­so­ci­ations, is not a reas­on for re­cus­al.

²In the event of any dis­pute, the com­mit­tee or del­eg­a­tion con­cerned shall make a fi­nal de­cision on re­cus­al after hear­ing the mem­ber con­cerned.

As­sembly mem­bers are pro­hib­ited from act­ing in an of­fi­cial ca­pa­city for a for­eign state or from ac­cept­ing titles or hon­ours from for­eign gov­ern­ments.

¹Where an as­sembly mem­ber, hav­ing been is­sued with a form­al warn­ing, once again in­fringes the ad­min­is­trat­ive and pro­ced­ur­al reg­u­la­tions of the coun­cils, the Pres­id­ent may:

a.

re­voke the as­sembly mem­ber’s right to speak; or

b.

ex­clude the as­sembly mem­ber from the meet­ing for all or part of its re­main­ing dur­a­tion.

²Where an as­sembly mem­ber com­mits a ser­i­ous in­fringe­ment of ad­min­is­trat­ive or pro­ced­ur­al reg­u­la­tions or breaches of­fi­cial secrecy, the rel­ev­ant coun­cil of­fice may:

a.

of­fi­cially rep­rim­and the as­sembly mem­ber; or

b.

sus­pend the as­sembly mem­ber from par­ti­cip­a­tion in the com­mit­tees for up to six months.

³The coun­cil shall de­cide on any ob­jec­tions raised by the coun­cil mem­ber in ques­tion.

The fol­low­ing per­sons may not be mem­bers of the Fed­er­al As­sembly:

a.

per­sons that it has elec­ted or whose ap­point­ment it has con­firmed;

b.

judges of the fed­er­al courts whom it has not elec­ted;

c.¹

staff of the cent­ral and de­cent­ral­ised Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion, the Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices and the fed­er­al courts, the sec­ret­ari­at of the Su­per­vis­ory Au­thor­ity for the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land, the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land as well as mem­bers of ex­tra-par­lia­ment­ary com­mis­sions with de­cision-mak­ing powers, un­less spe­cif­ic stat­utory pro­vi­sions provide oth­er­wise;

d.

mem­bers of the armed forces com­mand staff;

e.

mem­bers of the man­age­ment or­gans of or­gan­isa­tions or en­tit­ies un­der pub­lic or private law that do not form part of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion but which are en­trus­ted with ad­min­is­trat­ive tasks, where the Con­fed­er­a­tion has con­trol there­over;

f.

per­sons that rep­res­ent the Con­fed­er­a­tion in or­gan­isa­tions or en­tit­ies un­der pub­lic or private law that do not form part of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion but which are en­trus­ted with ad­min­is­trat­ive tasks, where the Con­fed­er­a­tion has con­trol there­over.

¹In cases of in­com­pat­ib­il­ity in terms of Art­icle 14 let­ter a, the per­son con­cerned must de­clare which of the two of­fices he or she has chosen to ac­cept.

²In cases of in­com­pat­ib­il­ity in terms of Art­icle 14 let­ters b–f, the per­son con­cerned shall be re­moved from the Fed­er­al As­sembly six months from the date of the in­com­pat­ib­il­ity be­ing es­tab­lished, provided he or she has not resigned from the oth­er po­s­i­tion by that time.

As­sembly mem­bers may not be held leg­ally ac­count­able for state­ments they make in the As­sembly or in its or­gans.

¹Crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings may be brought against an as­sembly mem­ber for an of­fence that is dir­ectly re­lated to his or her of­fi­cial po­s­i­tion or activ­ity only if au­thor­ised by the com­pet­ent com­mit­tees of both cham­bers. The reg­u­la­tions of each cham­ber shall des­ig­nate the com­pet­ent com­mit­tee.

²If it ap­pears jus­ti­fied giv­en the cir­cum­stances of the case, the com­pet­ent com­mit­tees may as­sign the pro­sec­u­tion and ad­ju­dic­a­tion of an of­fence sub­ject to can­ton­al jur­is­dic­tion to the pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies of the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

³The United Fed­er­al As­sembly may ap­point a Spe­cial At­tor­ney Gen­er­al.

^3bisThe pres­id­ents of the com­pet­ent com­mit­tees may by mu­tu­al agree­ment re­turn to the pro­sec­u­tion au­thor­it­ies ap­plic­a­tions provid­ing in­suf­fi­cient grounds for lift­ing im­munity so that these can be rec­ti­fied.²

⁴If an ap­plic­a­tion is clearly un­ten­able, the pres­id­ents of the com­pet­ent com­mit­tees may by mu­tu­al agree­ment deal dir­ectly with the ap­plic­a­tion. They shall in­form the com­mit­tees in ad­vance. If the ma­jor­ity in a com­mit­tee elects to dis­cuss an ap­plic­a­tion, the ap­plic­a­tion is dealt with ac­cord­ing to the stand­ard pro­ced­ure un­der Art­icle 17a.³

¹An ap­plic­a­tion to lift im­munity shall first be con­sidered by the com­pet­ent com­mit­tee of the coun­cil to which the ac­cused as­sembly mem­ber be­longs.

²If the de­cisions of both com­mit­tees on wheth­er to con­sider the ap­plic­a­tion or lift im­munity do not cor­res­pond, the com­mit­tees shall at­tempt to re­solve their dif­fer­ences. The second re­jec­tion of an ap­plic­a­tion by a com­mit­tee is fi­nal.

³The com­mit­tees are quor­ate when a ma­jor­ity of their mem­bers is present. The pres­ence of a quor­um must be con­firmed.

⁴The com­mit­tees shall hear the ac­cused as­sembly mem­ber. The mem­ber may not be rep­res­en­ted or ac­com­pan­ied.

⁵The de­cision of the com­mit­tees is fi­nal.

⁶Once a com­mit­tee has no­ti­fied the as­sembly mem­ber con­cerned, it shall in­form the pub­lic im­me­di­ately. At the same time, it shall in­form the mem­bers of both cham­bers in a writ­ten com­mu­nic­a­tion.

⁷If the ac­cused as­sembly mem­ber is a mem­ber of one of the com­pet­ent com­mit­tees, he or she shall re­cuse him or her­self.

¹The au­thor­isa­tion of the Presid­ing Col­leges of the Coun­cils is re­quired for the sus­pen­sion of postal and tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions secrecy in terms of Art­icle 321^ter of the Swiss Crim­in­al Code¹ if:

a.

it is in­ten­ded to pro­sec­ute a crim­in­al of­fence com­mit­ted by an as­sembly mem­ber;

b.

it is in­ten­ded to or­der meas­ures against an as­sembly mem­ber that per­mit the sur­veil­lance of a third party with which the as­sembly mem­ber has deal­ings by reas­on of his or her of­fice.

²Para­graph 1 also ap­plies by ana­logy to those cases in which oth­er in­quir­ies or crim­in­al in­vest­ig­a­tion meas­ures are re­quired in re­spect of an as­sembly mem­ber for an ini­tial cla­ri­fic­a­tion of the facts of the case or to se­cure evid­ence.

³As soon as the meas­ures au­thor­ised by Presid­ing Col­leges of the Coun­cils have been car­ried out, au­thor­isa­tion for pro­sec­u­tion must be ob­tained from the com­pet­ent com­mit­tees of both cham­bers in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 17, un­less pro­ceed­ings have already been dropped.²

⁴Any ar­rest made without this au­thor­isa­tion is un­law­ful.³

¹The Presid­ing Col­leges of the Coun­cils shall reach their de­cisions by joint de­lib­er­a­tion in cam­era. The grant­ing of au­thor­isa­tion in terms of Art­icle 18 re­quires the agree­ment at least five mem­bers.

²Au­thor­isa­tion to sus­pend postal and tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions secrecy may only be gran­ted if the rel­ev­ant au­thor­ity has ordered sur­veil­lance to be car­ried out in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 7 of the Fed­er­al Act of 6 Oc­to­ber 2000¹ on the Sur­veil­lance of Post and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions.

¹Crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings against an as­sembly mem­ber in re­spect of a felony or mis­de­mean­our that is not con­nec­ted with his or her of­fi­cial po­s­i­tion or activ­it­ies may only be ini­ti­ated dur­ing a ses­sion with the writ­ten con­sent of the mem­ber or with the au­thor­isa­tion of the com­pet­ent com­mit­tee of the coun­cil to which the mem­ber be­longs. The reg­u­la­tions of each coun­cil shall des­ig­nate the com­pet­ent com­mit­tee.¹

²The fore­go­ing does not ap­ply to a pre­cau­tion­ary ar­rest due to a risk of ab­scond­ing or where the mem­ber is caught in the act of com­mit­ting a felony. The au­thor­ity or­der­ing the ar­rest must ap­ply with­in 24 hours dir­ectly to the com­pet­ent com­mit­tee of the coun­cil to which the ar­res­ted mem­ber be­longs for its con­sent, un­less the per­son con­cerned has giv­en his or her own con­sent to be­ing ar­res­ted.²

³If crim­in­al pro­ceed­ings in re­spect of the of­fences named in para­graphs 1 and 2 have already been com­menced against an as­sembly mem­ber at the start of a ses­sion, the mem­ber has the right to re­quest a de­cision by the com­pet­ent com­mit­tee of the coun­cil to which he or she be­longs on the con­tinu­ation of any de­ten­tion that has already been ordered and on any sum­mons to at­tend court hear­ings. The sub­mis­sion of such a re­quest has no sus­pens­ive ef­fect on or­ders already made.³

⁴The right to at­tend a ses­sion may not be in­voked against a leg­ally en­force­able judg­ment that im­poses a cus­todi­al sen­tence the ex­e­cu­tion of which has been ordered pri­or to start of the ses­sion.

In the event of any dis­pute as to wheth­er au­thor­isa­tion in terms of Art­icles 17–20 is re­quired, the or­gan re­spons­ible for grant­ing au­thor­isa­tion de­cides.

¹The fin­an­cial li­ab­il­ity of an as­sembly mem­ber for his or her of­fi­cial activ­it­ies is gov­erned by the Gov­ern­ment Li­ab­il­ity Act of 14 March 1958¹.

²The Ad­min­is­tra­tion Del­eg­a­tion shall de­cide on the li­ab­il­ity of an as­sembly mem­ber un­der Art­icles 7 and 8 of the Gov­ern­ment Li­ab­il­ity Act of 14 March 1958.

³The as­sembly mem­ber may con­test the de­cision of the Ad­min­is­tra­tion Del­eg­a­tion by fil­ing an ap­peal with the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court.

¹The Fed­er­al As­sembly en­acts im­port­ant le­gis­lat­ive pro­vi­sions in the form of a fed­er­al act.

²It may en­act fur­ther le­gis­lat­ive pro­vi­sions in the form of a fed­er­al act or, provided it is en­titled to do so by the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion or the law, in the form of an or­din­ance of the Fed­er­al As­sembly.

³Pri­or to the en­act­ment of le­gis­lat­ive pro­vi­sions by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, the rel­ev­ant com­mit­tees of the Fed­er­al As­sembly shall be con­sul­ted if they so re­quest, provided the ur­gency of the pro­vi­sions so per­mits.

⁴Pro­vi­sions shall be re­garded as be­ing le­gis­lat­ive if they im­pose ob­lig­a­tions or con­fer rights or re­spons­ib­il­it­ies in gen­er­al and ab­stract terms and with dir­ectly bind­ing ef­fect.

The Fed­er­al As­sembly sub­mits amend­ments to the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion to the vote of the People and the Can­tons in the form of a fed­er­al de­cree.

¹The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall fol­low in­ter­na­tion­al de­vel­op­ments and par­ti­cip­ate in the de­cision-mak­ing pro­cess on im­port­ant for­eign policy is­sues.

²It shall ap­prove the con­clu­sion or amend­ment of or the with­draw­al from in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies, un­less the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may con­clude, amend or with­draw from the treaty at its own be­hest un­der Art­icles 7a and 7b^bis of the Gov­ern­ment and Ad­min­is­tra­tion Or­gan­isa­tion Act of 21 March 1997¹.²

³If the con­clu­sion or amend­ment of or with­draw­al from the in­ter­na­tion­al treaty is sub­ject to a ref­er­en­dum, the Fed­er­al As­sembly shall ap­prove the con­clu­sion, amend­ment or with­draw­al by is­su­ing a fed­er­al de­cree. It this is not the case, it shall ap­prove the con­clu­sion, amend­ment or with­draw­al by is­su­ing a simple fed­er­al de­cree.³

⁴It shall par­ti­cip­ate in in­ter­na­tion­al par­lia­ment­ary con­fer­ences and cul­tiv­ate re­la­tions with for­eign par­lia­ments.

¹The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall de­cide on ex­pendit­ures and in­vest­ments in the budget and its sup­ple­ments.¹ It shall de­cide on new or ex­ist­ing un­claimed ap­pro­pri­ation cred­its and pay­ment lim­its in the budget and its sup­ple­ments or by sep­ar­ate de­cree. It shall ap­prove the state ac­counts.

²It shall take its de­cisions in the form of a simple fed­er­al de­cree.

³It shall stip­u­late the pur­pose and the amount of the cred­its in the de­cision on cred­its. It may also in­clude in its de­cision the gen­er­al con­di­tions for the use of the cred­it, the sched­ule for the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the pro­ject and re­port­ing by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.²

¹The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall ex­er­cise su­per­vis­ory con­trol over the con­duct of busi­ness by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion, the fed­er­al courts, the Su­per­vis­ory Au­thor­ity for the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land, the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land and by oth­er per­sons en­trus­ted with tasks of the Con­fed­er­a­tion.¹

²It shall ex­er­cise su­per­vis­ory con­trol over the fin­an­cial budget in the con­text of Art­icle 8 of the Fed­er­al Audit­ing Act of 28 June 1967².

³The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall ex­er­cise su­per­vis­ory con­trol ac­cord­ing to the fol­low­ing cri­ter­ia:

a.

leg­al­ity;

b.

reg­u­lar­ity;

c.

ex­pedi­ency;

d.

ef­fect­ive­ness;

e.

eco­nom­ic ef­fi­ciency.

⁴Su­per­vis­ory con­trol shall not in­clude the power to re­voke or al­ter de­cisions. It shall not in­clude con­trol over the con­tent of the ju­di­cial de­cisions of the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land.³

The or­gans of the Fed­er­al As­sembly des­ig­nated by law shall en­sure that the meas­ures taken by the Con­fed­er­a­tion are eval­u­ated as to their ef­fect­ive­ness. To this end, they may:

a.

re­quest the Fed­er­al Coun­cil to have im­pact as­sess­ments car­ried out;

b.

ex­am­ine the im­pact as­sess­ments car­ried out on the in­struc­tions of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil;

c.

in­struct im­pact as­sess­ments to be car­ried out them­selves.

¹The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall par­ti­cip­ate:

a.

in the sig­ni­fic­ant as­pects of the plan­ning of state activ­it­ies;

b.

in de­term­in­ing the stra­tegic goals of units that have be­come autonom­ous in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 8 para­graph 5 of the Gov­ern­ment and Ad­min­is­tra­tion Or­gan­isa­tion Act of 21 March 1997¹.²

^1bisIt par­ti­cip­ates by:

a.

gath­er­ing in­form­a­tion on its activ­it­ies in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 from Fed­er­al Coun­cil re­ports or ac­know­ledging such re­ports;

b.

man­dat­ing the Fed­er­al Coun­cil:

1.

to make spe­cif­ic plans or to al­ter the main ele­ments of a plan, or

2.

to de­term­ine stra­tegic goals for the units that have be­come autonom­ous or to al­ter such goals;

c.

tak­ing de­cisions of gen­er­al prin­ciple and plan­ning de­cisions.³

²Gen­er­al prin­ciple de­cisions and plan­ning de­cisions are pre­lim­in­ary de­cisions that state that cer­tain goals must be achieved, prin­ciples and cri­ter­ia must be ob­served or meas­ures must be planned.

³Gen­er­al prin­ciple de­cisions and plan­ning de­cisions shall be is­sued in the form of a simple fed­er­al de­cree. For gen­er­al prin­ciple de­cisions and plan­ning de­cisions of great­er im­port­ance, the form of a fed­er­al de­cree may be chosen.

⁴If the Fed­er­al Coun­cil does not ad­here to the man­dates it has been giv­en or gen­er­al prin­ciple and plan­ning de­cisions, it must provide jus­ti­fic­a­tion for do­ing so.

¹The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall en­act in­di­vidu­al le­gis­lat­ive acts that are not sub­ject to a ref­er­en­dum in the form of a simple fed­er­al de­cree.

²In­di­vidu­al le­gis­lat­ive acts of the Fed­er­al As­sembly in re­spect of which the re­quired stat­utory basis is not found in the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion or in a fed­er­al act shall be en­acted in the form of a fed­er­al de­cree that is sub­ject to a ref­er­en­dum.

The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall carry out any ad­di­tion­al du­ties that are as­signed to it by the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion or fed­er­al le­gis­la­tion.

The or­gans of the Fed­er­al As­sembly are:

a.

the Na­tion­al Coun­cil;

b.

the Coun­cil of States;

c.

the United Fed­er­al As­sembly;

d.

the Presid­ing Col­leges;

e.

the Of­fices;

f.

the Con­fer­ence for Co­ordin­a­tion and the Ad­min­is­tra­tion Del­eg­a­tion;

g.

the com­mit­tees and their sub-com­mit­tees and del­eg­a­tions;

h.

the par­lia­ment­ary groups.

¹The Fed­er­al As­sembly meets in Bern.

²It may by simple fed­er­al de­cree de­cide by way of ex­cep­tion to meet at a dif­fer­ent loc­a­tion.

¹The Na­tion­al Coun­cil and the Coun­cil of States are con­vened by their Of­fices.

²The United Fed­er­al As­sembly is con­vened by the Con­fer­ence for Co­ordin­a­tion.

³The Pres­id­ent of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil or, in the event of his or her in­ca­pa­city, the Pres­id­ent of the Coun­cil of States is ob­liged to con­vene the coun­cils if the se­cur­ity of the fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies is en­dangered or the Fed­er­al Coun­cil is un­able to act.

The Presid­ing Col­lege of each coun­cil com­prises the Pres­id­ent, the first Vice-Pres­id­ent and the second Vice-Pres­id­ent.

¹Each coun­cil shall es­tab­lish an of­fice to deal with its ad­min­is­tra­tion and oth­er re­lated mat­ters.

²The of­fice of each coun­cil com­prises the mem­bers of the Presid­ing Col­lege and oth­er mem­bers as de­term­ined by the re­spect­ive reg­u­la­tions of the coun­cils.

³The rights and du­ties as­signed to the com­mit­tees by this Act also ap­ply to the Of­fices.

Each coun­cil shall is­sue reg­u­la­tions with the im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions re­lat­ing to its or­gan­isa­tion and pro­ced­ure.

¹The Of­fice of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil and the Of­fice of the Coun­cil of States con­sti­tute the Con­fer­ence for Co­ordin­a­tion.

²The Con­fer­ence for Co­ordin­a­tion has the fol­low­ing du­ties:

a.¹

it de­cides on the cal­en­dar week in which the or­din­ary and ex­traordin­ary ses­sions are held;

b.

it deals with busi­ness between the two coun­cils and between the coun­cils and the Fed­er­al Coun­cil;

c.

it may is­sue dir­ect­ives on the al­loc­a­tion of per­son­nel and fin­an­cial re­sources to the or­gans of the Fed­er­al As­sembly;

d.

it elects the Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary of the Fed­er­al As­sembly. The elec­tion must be con­firmed by the United Fed­er­al As­sembly;

e.

it ap­proves the form­a­tion of new par­lia­ment­ary groups in ac­cord­ance with the cri­ter­ia stated in Art­icle 61.

³The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may par­ti­cip­ate in its meet­ings in an ad­vis­ory ca­pa­city.

⁴The de­cisions of the Con­fer­ence for Co­ordin­a­tion re­quire the agree­ment of the Of­fices of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil and of the Coun­cil of States. Elec­tions in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 2 let­ter d shall take place by an ab­so­lute ma­jor­ity of the vot­ing mem­bers.

⁵...²

¹The Ad­min­is­tra­tion Del­eg­a­tion com­prises three mem­bers from each of the Of­fices of the Coun­cils as ap­poin­ted by the Con­fer­ence for Co­ordin­a­tion. The Ad­min­is­tra­tion Del­eg­a­tion shall ap­point one of its mem­bers as its del­eg­ate. It con­sti­tutes it­self.

²The Ad­min­is­tra­tion Del­eg­a­tion is re­spons­ible for the over­all man­age­ment of the ad­min­is­tra­tion of Par­lia­ment.

³The Ad­min­is­tra­tion Del­eg­a­tion shall take de­cisions by a simple ma­jor­ity of its vot­ing mem­bers.

¹The Of­fice of the United Fed­er­al As­sembly com­prises the Presid­ing Col­leges of both Coun­cils.

²The chair­per­son is the Pres­id­ent of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil or, in the event of his or her in­ca­pa­city, the Pres­id­ent of the Coun­cil of States.

³The Of­fice shall pre­pare the meet­ings of the United Fed­er­al As­sembly.

⁴It may ap­point com­mit­tees of the United Fed­er­al As­sembly. They com­prise twelve mem­bers of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil and five mem­bers of the Coun­cil of States.

¹The Par­dons and Jur­is­dic­tion Com­mit­tee con­siders ap­plic­a­tions for par­dons and de­cisions on con­flicts of jur­is­dic­tion between the su­preme fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies.

²Its pres­id­ent is elec­ted al­tern­ately from the mem­bers of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil and the mem­bers of the Coun­cil of States.

³It shall sub­mit ap­plic­a­tions for par­dons to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, which provides it with a re­port and a pro­pos­al there­on.

⁴It may in­spect the ap­plic­a­tion and the files on the in­vest­ig­a­tion, the court pro­ceed­ings and the ex­e­cu­tion of the judge­ment.

¹The Ju­di­ciary Com­mit­tee is re­spons­ible for the pre­par­a­tion for the ap­point­ment and re­mov­al from of­fice of judges of the fed­er­al courts:

a.

of judges of the fed­er­al courts;

b.

of mem­bers of the Su­per­vis­ory Au­thor­ity for the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land;

c.

of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land and the Depu­ties of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land.²

²It is­sues pub­lic in­vit­a­tions for ap­plic­a­tions for va­cant po­s­i­tions as fed­er­al judges, the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land, or the Depu­ties of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land. If the law per­mits part-time po­s­i­tions, the level of oc­cu­pa­tion is stated in the in­vit­a­tion to ap­ply.³

³The Ju­di­ciary Com­mit­tee sub­mits its elec­tion nom­in­a­tions and pro­pos­als for re­mov­al from of­fice to the United Fed­er­al As­sembly.

⁴It de­term­ines the de­tails of the em­ploy­ment con­tracts of the judges, the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land, or the Depu­ties of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land.⁴

⁵Each par­lia­ment­ary group has the right to at least one seat on the Com­mit­tee.

⁶The Con­trol Com­mit­tees and the Fin­ance Del­eg­a­tion shall no­ti­fy the Ju­di­ciary Com­mit­tee of find­ings that raise ser­i­ous ques­tions as to the pro­fes­sion­al or per­son­al suit­ab­il­ity of judges, the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land, or the Depu­ties of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land.⁵

¹Un­less oth­er­wise provided in this Act, the pro­vi­sions of the in­tern­al reg­u­la­tions of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil ap­ply by ana­logy to the pro­ced­ure in the United Fed­er­al As­sembly.

²The tell­ers and the sub­sti­tute tell­ers of the two cham­bers de­term­ine the res­ults of elec­tions and votes.

³If the busi­ness reg­u­la­tions of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil do not ap­ply, the United Fed­er­al As­sembly may draw up its own reg­u­la­tions.

¹Each coun­cil shall ap­point from its mem­bers the stand­ing com­mit­tees provided for by this Act and the in­tern­al reg­u­la­tions.

²In ex­cep­tion­al cir­cum­stances, the coun­cils may ap­point spe­cial com­mit­tees.

¹The mem­bers of the com­mit­tees and their chair­per­sons (pres­id­ent and vice-pres­id­ent) shall be ap­poin­ted by the of­fice of the rel­ev­ant coun­cil.

²Un­less oth­er­wise provided by this Act, the chair­per­sons of joint com­mit­tees of both cham­bers and of com­mit­tees of the United Fed­er­al As­sembly shall be elec­ted by the Con­fer­ence for Co­ordin­a­tion. The pres­id­ent and the vice-pres­id­ent may not be­long to the same coun­cil.

^2bisThe Con­fer­ence for Co­ordin­a­tion en­sures that die Pres­id­ents of the Con­trol Com­mit­tees of both cham­bers do not be­long to the same par­lia­ment­ary group.¹

³The com­pos­i­tion of the com­mit­tees and the al­loc­a­tion of seats among the com­mit­tee chair­per­sons are de­term­ined by the strengths of the par­lia­ment­ary groups in the rel­ev­ant cham­ber. Wherever pos­sible, ap­pro­pri­ate ac­count should be taken of the of­fi­cial lan­guages and re­gions of the coun­try.

⁴The term of of­fice of the mem­bers of the stand­ing com­mit­tees is de­term­ined by the re­spect­ive reg­u­la­tions of the coun­cils.

¹In ac­cord­ance with the terms of ref­er­ence un­der this Act or the rules of busi­ness, the com­mit­tees have the fol­low­ing du­ties:

a.

they con­duct a pre­lim­in­ary dis­cus­sion of the busi­ness re­ferred to them for the at­ten­tion of their coun­cil;

b.

they con­sider and de­cide on the busi­ness re­ferred to them for fi­nal de­cision in terms of this Act;

c.

they mon­it­or the so­cial and polit­ic­al de­vel­op­ments in their areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity;

d.

they draw up pro­pos­als rel­ev­ant to their areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity;

e. ¹

they are re­spons­ible for im­pact as­sess­ments in their areas of re­spons­ib­il­ity. They sub­mit re­lated pro­pos­als to the com­pet­ent bod­ies of the Fed­er­al As­sembly, or is­sue re­lated man­dates to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil;

f.

they take ac­count of the res­ults of im­pact as­sess­ments.

²The com­mit­tees shall sub­mit re­ports on the busi­ness re­ferred to them and their pro­pos­als there­on to their re­spect­ive coun­cil.

¹In or­der to ful­fil their du­ties, the com­mit­tees may:

a.

sub­mit par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ives, par­lia­ment­ary pro­ced­ur­al re­quests and pro­pos­als and com­pile re­ports;

b.

con­sult ex­tern­al ex­perts;

c.

con­sult rep­res­ent­at­ives of the can­tons and in­terest groups;

d.

con­duct in­spec­tions.

²The com­mit­tees may ap­point sub-com­mit­tees from their mem­bers. These shall re­port and sub­mit pro­pos­als to the com­mit­tee. Joint sub-com­mit­tees may be ap­poin­ted by two or more com­mit­tees.

¹The com­mit­tees are gov­erned by the pro­ced­ur­al rules of their re­spect­ive coun­cil, un­less this Act or the re­spect­ive reg­u­la­tions of the coun­cils provide oth­er­wise.

²Res­ol­u­tions of joint com­mit­tees of both cham­bers re­quire the agree­ment of the ma­jor­ity of the vot­ing mem­bers from each coun­cil, un­less this Act provides oth­er­wise.

³Per­sons in the ser­vice of the Con­fed­er­a­tion must nor­mally provide writ­ten doc­u­ments and visu­al present­a­tions for the com­mit­tees in two of­fi­cial lan­guages. Ex­tern­al ex­perts and rep­res­ent­at­ives of can­tons and in­terest groups shall be no­ti­fied in the in­vit­a­tion to the com­mit­tee meet­ing that they should, if pos­sible, take ac­count of com­mit­tee be­ing mul­ti­lin­gual.¹

¹The dis­cus­sions in the com­mit­tees are con­fid­en­tial; in par­tic­u­lar, no in­form­a­tion may be provided on the opin­ions of in­di­vidu­al par­ti­cipants in meet­ings or on the way in which they voted.

²The com­mit­tees may de­cide to hold pub­lic hear­ings.

¹Minutes of meet­ings and oth­er com­mit­tee doc­u­ments must be clas­si­fied; the ex­cep­tion be­ing doc­u­ments that are already pub­licly avail­able be­fore be­ing passed to the com­mit­tee.

²The com­mit­tees may de­clas­si­fy their doc­u­ments and make them pub­licly avail­able, with the ex­cep­tion of the minutes of their meet­ings. The con­di­tions for ac­cess­ing doc­u­ments are reg­u­lated in an or­din­ance is­sued by the Fed­er­al As­sembly.

The com­mit­tees shall in­form the gen­er­al pub­lic of the res­ults of their de­lib­er­a­tions.

¹The com­mit­tees of each coun­cil shall co­ordin­ate their activ­it­ies with each oth­er and with the com­mit­tees of the oth­er coun­cil that are con­sid­er­ing the same or sim­il­ar is­sues.

²The pro­cure­ment of in­form­a­tion or the cla­ri­fic­a­tion of is­sues may be car­ried out in joint meet­ings or these tasks may be as­signed to a single com­mit­tee.

³The Con­trol Com­mit­tees and the Fin­ance Com­mit­tees may hold joint pre­lim­in­ary dis­cus­sions of the an­nu­al re­port and ac­counts.

⁴In the case of mat­ters con­cern­ing more than one area of re­spons­ib­il­ity, oth­er com­mit­tees may sub­mit re­ports to the com­mit­tees re­spons­ible for the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion.

⁵...¹

¹The Fin­ance Com­mit­tees (FCs) are re­spons­ible for the fin­an­cial man­age­ment of the Con­fed­er­a­tion; they shall con­duct a pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion of the fin­an­cial plan­ning, the draft budget and its sup­ple­ments and the state ac­counts. They ex­er­cise su­per­vis­ory con­trol over the en­tire fin­an­cial budget in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 26 para­graph 2, un­less this Act provides oth­er­wise.

²They may sub­mit re­ports re­gard­ing le­gis­lat­ive bills with sub­stan­tial fin­an­cial re­per­cus­sions to the com­mit­tees re­spons­ible for their pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion. Such le­gis­lat­ive bills may be re­ferred to them for an ac­com­pa­ny­ing re­port or for a pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion.¹

³The Fin­ance Com­mit­tees shall be in­vited to re­port on drafts for ap­pro­pri­ation cred­its and pay­ment lim­its that are not as­signed to them for pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion. They have the same rights as the com­mit­tees re­spons­ible for the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion with re­gard to rep­res­ent­ing their pro­pos­als in the As­sembly.²

¹The Fin­ance Com­mit­tees shall each ap­point three of their mem­bers and a per­man­ent deputy for each of those mem­bers to the Fin­ance Del­eg­a­tion (FinD­el). The Del­eg­a­tion con­sti­tutes it­self.¹

²The Fin­ance Del­eg­a­tion is re­spons­ible for the de­tailed ex­am­in­a­tion and su­per­vi­sion of the en­tire fin­an­cial budget.

³The deal­ings between the Fin­ance Del­eg­a­tion and the Fed­er­al Audit Of­fice are gov­erned by Art­icles 14, 15 and 18 of the Fed­er­al Act of 28 June 1967² on the Fed­er­al Audit Of­fice.

⁴The Fin­ance Del­eg­a­tion shall sub­mit re­ports and pro­pos­als to the Fin­ance Com­mit­tees.

⁵It may con­sider oth­er items of busi­ness and no­ti­fy the Fin­ance Com­mit­tees or oth­er com­mit­tees of its find­ings.

⁶It shall reach de­cisions by a simple ma­jor­ity of its vot­ing mem­bers.

¹The Con­trol Com­mit­tees (CC) ex­er­cise su­per­vis­ory con­trol over the con­duct of busi­ness in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 26 para­graphs 1, 3 and 4.

²Their su­per­vis­ory activ­it­ies fo­cus on the cri­ter­ia of leg­al­ity, ex­pedi­ency and ef­fect­ive­ness.

¹The Con­trol Com­mit­tees each ap­point three of their mem­bers to the Con­trol Del­eg­a­tion (CDel). The Del­eg­a­tion con­sti­tutes it­self.

²The Del­eg­a­tion su­per­vises activ­it­ies in the field of state se­cur­ity and the in­tel­li­gence ser­vices and su­per­vises state activ­it­ies in mat­ters that must be kept secret be­cause their dis­clos­ure to un­au­thor­ised per­sons may be ser­i­ously det­ri­ment­al to na­tion­al in­terests.¹

³It ac­cepts ad­di­tion­al spe­cif­ic man­dates that are as­signed to it by a Con­trol Com­mit­tee.

^3bisThe Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall in­form the Del­eg­a­tion at the latest 24 hours after mak­ing its de­cision of or­ders to safe­guard the in­terests of the coun­try or to safe­guard in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity.²

⁴The Del­eg­a­tion shall sub­mit re­ports and its pro­pos­als there­on to the Con­trol Com­mit­tees.³

⁵It reaches de­cisions by a simple ma­jor­ity of its vot­ing mem­bers.

The Fin­ance and Con­trol Com­mit­tees shall re­port to their re­spect­ive coun­cil once a year on the prin­cip­al res­ults of their work.

¹The Draft­ing Com­mit­tee (DrC) is a joint com­mit­tee of both cham­bers.

²It con­sists of three sub-com­mit­tees, cor­res­pond­ing to each of the of­fi­cial lan­guages of the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

³The Com­mit­tee con­sti­tutes it­self.

⁴It shall reach de­cisions by a simple ma­jor­ity of its vot­ing mem­bers.

¹The Draft­ing Com­mit­tee veri­fies the word­ing of le­gis­lat­ive texts and de­term­ines the fi­nal ver­sion pri­or to the fi­nal vote.

^1bisIt is also re­spons­ible for ed­it­or­i­al cor­rec­tions which are not sub­ject to a fi­nal vote in le­gis­lat­ive texts.¹

²It en­sures that the texts are for­mu­lated in a con­cise and un­der­stand­able man­ner. It shall ex­am­ine wheth­er they con­form to the in­ten­tions of the Fed­er­al As­sembly, and en­sures that the ver­sions in the three of­fi­cial lan­guages are con­sist­ent.

³The Draft­ing Com­mit­tee is not au­thor­ised to carry out any ma­ter­i­al cor­rec­tions. If it en­coun­ters any ma­ter­i­al omis­sions, am­bi­gu­ities or con­tra­dic­tions, it must in­form the Pres­id­ents of the coun­cils.

¹Where, fol­low­ing the fi­nal vote, an er­ror of form or word­ing that does not con­form with the res­ults of the par­lia­ment­ary de­lib­er­a­tions is dis­covered, the Draft­ing Com­mit­tee shall in­struct the re­quired cor­rec­tions to be made pri­or to pub­lic­a­tion in the Of­fi­cial Com­pil­a­tion of Fed­er­al Le­gis­la­tion. An in­dic­a­tion must be giv­en of the cor­rec­tions made.

²Fol­low­ing the pub­lic­a­tion of a le­gis­lat­ive en­act­ment in the Of­fi­cial Com­pil­a­tion of Fed­er­al Le­gis­la­tion, the Draft­ing Com­mit­tee may in­struct the cor­rec­tion of ob­vi­ous er­rors and al­ter­a­tions of a form­al nature. An in­dic­a­tion must be giv­en of the cor­rec­tions made.

³The mem­bers of the Fed­er­al As­sembly must be in­formed of ma­jor cor­rec­tions.

An or­din­ance of the Fed­er­al As­sembly shall reg­u­late the de­tails of the com­pos­i­tion and du­ties of the Draft­ing Com­mit­tee as well as the pro­ced­ure for the veri­fic­a­tion of le­gis­lat­ive bills pri­or to the fi­nal vote and for the in­struc­tion of cor­rec­tions fol­low­ing the fi­nal vote and fol­low­ing pub­lic­a­tion.

The or­gan­isa­tion, du­ties and pro­ced­ures of del­eg­a­tions that rep­res­ent the Fed­er­al As­sembly at in­ter­na­tion­al par­lia­ment­ary con­fer­ences or in bi­lat­er­al deal­ings with par­lia­ments of third coun­tries are reg­u­lated in an or­din­ance of the Fed­er­al As­sembly.

¹Par­lia­ment­ary groups are com­posed of the as­sembly mem­bers who be­long to the same party.

²Mem­bers who do not be­long to a party or who be­long to more than one party may, provided they share sim­il­ar polit­ic­al views, form their own par­lia­ment­ary groups.

³A par­lia­ment­ary group must con­sist of a min­im­um of five mem­bers from one of the two cham­bers.

⁴Each par­lia­ment­ary group must no­ti­fy the Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary of the Fed­er­al As­sembly of its form­a­tion, its mem­bers, its chair­per­son and its sec­ret­ary.

¹Par­lia­ment­ary groups con­duct a pre­lim­in­ary dis­cus­sion of the busi­ness to be sub­mit­ted to the cham­bers.

²They have the right to sub­mit par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ives, par­lia­ment­ary pro­ced­ur­al re­quests, pro­pos­als and elec­tion nom­in­a­tions.

³The rules of busi­ness may provide for fur­ther rights for par­lia­ment­ary groups.

⁴Par­lia­ment­ary groups may es­tab­lish their own sec­ret­ari­ats. These re­ceive the same doc­u­ments as the as­sembly mem­bers and are sub­ject to of­fi­cial secrecy in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 8.

⁵Par­lia­ment­ary groups shall re­ceive a sub­sidy to cov­er the costs of their sec­ret­ari­ats. The de­tails of the fore­go­ing are reg­u­lated by the Par­lia­ment­ary Re­sources Act of 18 March 1988¹.

¹As­sembly mem­bers who share an in­terest in a spe­cif­ic mat­ter may join to­geth­er to form a cross-party group. These groups must be open to all as­sembly mem­bers.

²The groups must no­ti­fy the Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices of their form­a­tion and of their mem­bers. The Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices keeps a pub­lic re­gister of cross-party groups.

³The cross-party groups are en­titled, as far as pos­sible, to ad­min­is­trat­ive as­sist­ance and to con­fer­ence rooms.

⁴They are not en­titled to act as the rep­res­ent­at­ives of the Fed­er­al As­sembly.

¹The Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices as­sist the Fed­er­al As­sembly in the ful­fil­ment of its du­ties.

²They carry out the fol­low­ing tasks:

a.

they plan and or­gan­ise the ses­sions and the meet­ings of the com­mit­tees;

b.

they are re­spons­ible for provid­ing sec­ret­ari­al ser­vices, car­ry­ing out trans­la­tion work and tak­ing the minutes of the res­ol­u­tions and de­bates of the coun­cils, the United Fed­er­al As­sembly and the com­mit­tees;

c.

they keep re­cords and of­fer ser­vices in re­la­tion to re­cords and in­form­a­tion tech­no­lo­gies;

c^bis.¹ they op­er­ate in­form­a­tion sys­tems used to eval­u­ate data for the ful­fil­ment of the tasks of the Fed­er­al As­sembly, its or­gans and the mem­bers of the Coun­cils; this data pro­cessing may also in­clude par­tic­u­larly sens­it­ive per­son­al data; a Fed­er­al As­sembly or­din­ance shall spe­cify the sources used for this pur­pose and reg­u­late ac­cess au­thor­isa­tions and how this data may be dis­closed;

d.

they ad­vise the as­sembly mem­bers, and in par­tic­u­lar the Presid­ing Col­leges of the Coun­cils and the chair­per­sons of the com­mit­tees on fac­tu­al and pro­ced­ur­al mat­ters;

e.

they in­form the gen­er­al pub­lic about the Fed­er­al As­sembly and its activ­it­ies;

f.

they as­sist the Fed­er­al As­sembly in its activ­it­ies with re­gard to in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions;

g.

sub­ject to the re­ser­va­tion of the com­pet­en­cies of the or­gans of the coun­cils, they are re­spons­ible for all oth­er tasks rel­ev­ant to the ad­min­is­tra­tion of Par­lia­ment.

¹The Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices are sub­ject to the su­per­vi­sion of the Ad­min­is­tra­tion Del­eg­a­tion.

²The Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary of the Fed­er­al As­sembly is re­spons­ible for the man­age­ment of the Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices.

³If of­fices of the Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices act for or­gans of the Fed­er­al As­sembly, then they work in ac­cord­ance with their in­struc­tions.

Or­gans of the Fed­er­al As­sembly as well as the Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary of the Fed­er­al As­sembly are au­thor­ised by an or­din­ance of the Fed­er­al As­sembly to ap­point the staff of the Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices.

The of­fices of the Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices have the same rights to in­form­a­tion as the or­gans of the Fed­er­al As­sembly on be­half of which they are act­ing.

¹The or­gans of the Fed­er­al As­sembly, and the Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices when act­ing on their be­half, may call on the ser­vices of of­fices of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion in or­der to ful­fil their du­ties.

²Such in­volve­ment must take place with the con­sent of the ap­pro­pri­ate De­part­ment or of the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery.

³In the event of any dis­agree­ment, the Ad­min­is­tra­tion Del­eg­a­tion shall de­cide after con­sult­ing the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

¹The right to use the As­sembly cham­bers is reg­u­lated by the Pres­id­ents of the Coun­cils, and the right to use the oth­er premises of the Fed­er­al As­sembly and the Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices is reg­u­lated by the Ad­min­is­tra­tion Del­eg­a­tion.

²Each as­sembly mem­ber may have an entry pass is­sued for a spe­cified peri­od to any two per­sons who wish to have ac­cess to the parts of the Par­lia­ment Build­ing that are not ac­cess­ible to the pub­lic. The de­tails of these per­sons and their func­tions must be re­cor­ded in a re­gister that is avail­able for pub­lic in­spec­tion.

¹The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall en­act in the form of or­din­ances of the Fed­er­al As­sembly the im­ple­ment­ing reg­u­la­tions that de­term­ine the rules for the ad­min­is­tra­tion of Par­lia­ment.

²Un­less an or­din­ance of the Fed­er­al As­sembly provides oth­er­wise, the im­ple­ment­ing reg­u­la­tions of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil or of any of its sub­or­din­ate of­fices that ap­ply to the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion are ap­plied in the ad­min­is­tra­tion of Par­lia­ment.

³Powers that are ac­cor­ded to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil or to any of its sub­or­din­ate of­fices by such im­ple­ment­ing reg­u­la­tions shall be ex­er­cised by the Ad­min­is­tra­tion Del­eg­a­tion or Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary of the Fed­er­al As­sembly.

Busi­ness in the Fed­er­al As­sembly in­cludes in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

drafts made by its com­mit­tees or by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil of le­gis­lat­ive en­act­ments of the Fed­er­al As­sembly;

b.

par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ives and mo­tions of its mem­bers, par­lia­ment­ary groups and com­mit­tees as well as can­ton­al ini­ti­at­ives;

c.

re­ports from its com­mit­tees or from the Fed­er­al Coun­cil;

d.

nom­in­a­tions for elec­tions and pro­pos­als re­lat­ing to the con­firm­a­tion of elec­tion nom­in­a­tions;

e.

pro­pos­als re­lat­ing to pro­ced­ure made by its mem­bers, par­lia­ment­ary groups, com­mit­tees or by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil;

f.

de­clar­a­tions of the coun­cils or of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil;

g.

pe­ti­tions and sub­mis­sions;

h.

ap­peals, ap­plic­a­tions and ob­jec­tions.

¹Busi­ness ori­gin­at­ing from mem­bers or or­gans of the coun­cils shall be­come pending in the coun­cils on its sub­mis­sion to the Par­lia­ment­ary Sec­ret­ari­at.

²Pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ives and re­quests made by a can­ton for the guar­an­tee of its con­sti­tu­tion shall be­come pending in the As­sembly on their sub­mis­sion to the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery.

³Oth­er busi­ness shall be­come pending in both cham­bers of the Fed­er­al As­sembly on its sub­mis­sion to the As­sembly.

¹Busi­ness may be with­drawn by its ori­gin­at­or at any time be­fore either cham­ber has taken a de­cision there­on for the first time.

²A par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive or a can­ton­al ini­ti­at­ive may no longer be with­drawn after it has been en­dorsed by a com­mit­tee en­trus­ted with its pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion.

³The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may not with­draw busi­ness that it has in­tro­duced.

¹Each coun­cil shall con­sider and de­cide first of all wheth­er it wishes to ap­prove the in­tro­duc­tion of a bill (in­tro­duct­ory de­bate).

²If it ap­proves the in­tro­duc­tion of a bill, it must there­after ex­am­ine the en­act­ment art­icle by art­icle (de­tailed con­sid­er­a­tion).

³In­tro­duc­tion shall be man­dat­ory in the case of pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ives, budgets, an­nu­al re­ports, ac­counts, ob­jec­tions to treat­ies between can­tons or between can­tons and for­eign states, the guar­an­tee of can­ton­al con­sti­tu­tions, and in re­la­tion to the le­gis­lature plan and the fin­an­cial plan.¹

⁴After the con­clu­sion of the first de­tailed con­sid­er­a­tion, a vote is taken in each cham­ber on the text in its en­tirety. If ap­prov­al of in­tro­duc­tion is man­dat­ory, no vote is taken on the text in its en­tirety oth­er than in the case of budgets and ac­counts.

⁵If a bill is re­jec­ted by a cham­ber in the vote on the en­tire text, this is equi­val­ent to non-ap­prov­al of in­tro­duc­tion. The re­jec­tion of a budget or of ac­counts in the vote on the en­tire text is equi­val­ent to a re­fer­ral back to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

⁶If a bill is ap­proved for in­tro­duc­tion, it may be aban­doned at the re­quest of the com­mit­tee re­spons­ible for the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion or the Fed­er­al Coun­cil if it has be­come un­ne­ces­sary.²

¹Either coun­cil may refer a bill that it has ap­proved for in­tro­duc­tion, or any oth­er item of busi­ness, back to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil or the com­mit­tee en­trus­ted with its ex­am­in­a­tion for re­view or amend­ment.

²It may also refer in­di­vidu­al sec­tions or pro­vi­sions for re­view at a later stage in the de­lib­er­a­tions.

³The pro­pos­al for re­fer­ral must in­dic­ate what should be re­viewed, amended or ad­ded.

¹Any as­sembly mem­ber may sub­mit pro­pos­als on a pending mat­ter for con­sid­er­a­tion in the coun­cil and in the com­mit­tee re­spons­ible for the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion. He or she may ap­ply to the rel­ev­ant com­mit­tee for the sub­mis­sion of a par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive or of a com­mit­tee mo­tion.

^1bisA bill may only be sub­mit­ted with a pro­pos­al if thereby:

a.

a pending bill is to be di­vided up;

b.

a counter-pro­pos­al is to be made to a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive on the same con­sti­tu­tion­al is­sue (Art. 101).¹

²Pro­pos­als that re­late to pro­ced­ure (points of or­der) must nor­mally be dealt with im­me­di­ately.

³A re­con­sid­er­a­tion of any de­cision made may be re­ques­ted by means of a point of or­der un­til a cham­ber has con­cluded its de­lib­er­a­tions on an item of busi­ness.²

^3bisA point of or­der re­quest­ing the re­con­sid­er­a­tion of a de­cision on in­tro­duc­tion is not per­mit­ted.³

^3terA point of or­der re­quest­ing the re­peat of a vote con­clud­ing the Coun­cil’s de­lib­er­a­tions on an item of busi­ness may only be made im­me­di­ately after the vote.⁴

⁴Pro­pos­als that have been re­jec­ted by the ma­jor­ity of a com­mit­tee may be sub­mit­ted as minor­ity pro­pos­als.

¹Where it is in­ten­ded that a draft Fed­er­al Act be de­clared ur­gent, the ur­gency clause shall be ex­emp­ted from the vote on the en­act­ment in its en­tirety.

²A de­cision on the ur­gency clause may be made only after a suc­cess­ful res­ol­u­tion of dif­fer­ences.

³If the ur­gency clause is re­jec­ted, the Draft­ing Com­mit­tee shall cor­rect the word­ing of the pro­vi­sions on the ref­er­en­dum and its entry in­to force after con­sult­ing the pres­id­ents of the com­mit­tees en­trus­ted with the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion.¹

¹Where a ques­tion may be di­vided in­to more than one part, each part may, on re­quest, be voted on sep­ar­ately.

²If two pro­pos­als in re­spect of the same sub­ject mat­ter have been sub­mit­ted and they either re­late to the same part of the text or mu­tu­ally ex­clude each oth­er, a vote is held on which of the two is to be ac­cep­ted.

³If it is not pos­sible to vote on which pro­pos­al to ac­cept, then the pro­pos­als shall be voted on in­di­vidu­ally.

⁴No vote is held on un­op­posed pro­pos­als.

⁵The num­ber of votes is al­ways coun­ted in the case of:

a.

votes on en­tire bills;

b.

votes on a com­prom­ise mo­tion;

c.

votes on pro­vi­sions re­quir­ing the agree­ment of a ma­jor­ity of the mem­bers of each of the two par­lia­ment­ary cham­bers (Art. 159 para. 3 Cst.);

d.

fi­nal votes.¹

¹If more than two pro­pos­als have been made on the same sub­ject mat­ter, then an elim­in­a­tion vote must be held un­til a vote can be held on which of two pro­pos­als is to be ac­cep­ted.

²The or­der of vot­ing on the pro­pos­als must be struc­tured in such a way that a vote is held first on the pro­pos­als that dif­fer the least from each oth­er in con­tent, work­ing through the pro­pos­als un­til those that dif­fer the most are reached.

³If it is not pos­sible to de­cide on the or­der of vot­ing ac­cord­ing to the cri­ter­ia laid down in para­graph 2, an elim­in­a­tion vote is held deal­ing firstly with the pro­pos­als of the as­sembly mem­bers, then the pro­pos­als of the com­mit­tee minor­it­ies and fi­nally the pro­pos­al of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil. A vote is then held to de­cide between the pro­pos­al that wins the elim­in­a­tion vote and the pro­pos­al of the com­mit­tee ma­jor­ity.

⁴The or­der of vot­ing on the pro­pos­als may not be altered by a con­tin­gent pro­pos­al.¹

¹The Coun­cil Pres­id­ent shall not par­ti­cip­ate in the vote. In the event of a tie, the Pres­id­ent shall have the cast­ing vote.

²If the agree­ment of the ma­jor­ity of the mem­bers of each coun­cil is re­quired, the Coun­cil Pres­id­ent shall par­ti­cip­ate in the vote.

¹A fi­nal vote shall be held on:

a.

a fed­er­al act;

b.

an or­din­ance of the Fed­er­al As­sembly;

c.

a fed­er­al de­cree that is sub­ject to a man­dat­ory or an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.¹

^1bisThe fi­nal vote shall be held as soon as the cham­bers have reached un­an­im­ous de­cisions on the bill and have ap­proved the word­ing re­vised by the Draft­ing Com­mit­tee. The two cham­bers shall hold the fi­nal vote on the same day.²

²If both cham­bers ap­prove the bill then the en­act­ment has been passed by the Fed­er­al As­sembly.

³If one or both cham­bers re­ject the bill then the en­act­ment is not passed.

The Stand­ing Or­ders of the Coun­cils shall de­term­ine the cases in which the res­ult of the vote is pub­lished in the form of a list of mem­bers’ names with the votes they cast.

¹Fed­er­al As­sembly de­crees re­quire the agree­ment of both cham­bers.

²A joint de­cree is not re­quired in re­spect of pe­ti­tions and re­ports that are sub­mit­ted for in­form­a­tion pur­poses.

¹Busi­ness that must be dealt with sep­ar­ately by the two cham­bers shall be al­loc­ated to one of the Cham­bers for pri­or con­sid­er­a­tion (the first cham­ber).

²The pres­id­ents of the cham­bers shall de­cide on the al­loc­a­tion of busi­ness. If they are un­able to reach an agree­ment, the mat­ter shall be de­cided by draw­ing lots.

¹Draft amend­ments to the Con­sti­tu­tion and non-ur­gent fed­er­al acts are not nor­mally con­sidered for the first time by both cham­bers in the same ses­sion.

²The Con­fer­ence for Co­ordin­a­tion may in re­sponse to an ap­plic­a­tion by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil or a com­mit­tee de­cide that an item of busi­ness in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 will by way of ex­cep­tion be con­sidered by both cham­bers for the first time in the same ses­sion.

¹Busi­ness that must be con­sidered by both cham­bers and which has been voted on by one cham­ber must then be passed on to the oth­er cham­ber for con­sid­er­a­tion.

²The first cham­ber may con­sider the mat­ter again only after the oth­er cham­ber has voted on it.

³Where the drafts of more than one bill are sub­mit­ted to the Fed­er­al As­sembly ac­com­pan­ied by the same Fed­er­al Coun­cil dis­patch or a re­port, these bills may be passed on in­di­vidu­ally to the oth­er cham­ber after the first cham­ber has voted on them all.

⁴A fed­er­al de­cree on the counter pro­pos­al to a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive must be passed on to the oth­er cham­ber with the fed­er­al de­cree on the re­lated pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive.¹

¹If one cham­ber refers an item of busi­ness in its en­tirety back to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, it must give no­tice of its de­cision to the oth­er cham­ber.

²If the oth­er cham­ber does not agree with the de­cision to refer the mat­ter back, the re­fer­ral will still take ef­fect provided the first cham­ber con­firms its ini­tial de­cision.

³The same pro­ced­ure also ap­plies to the de­cision of a cham­ber to ad­journ the dis­cus­sion of an item of busi­ness for a peri­od that is ex­pec­ted to ex­ceed one year (sus­pen­sion of busi­ness).

¹By way of ex­cep­tion, a large bill may be di­vided up by joint de­cision of both cham­bers and may be passed on to the oth­er cham­ber in parts be­fore the bill has been voted on in its en­tirety.

²Pri­or to a vote be­ing taken on the bill in its en­tirety, the mem­bers of either cham­ber may move that any pro­vi­sion of the en­tire bill be re­con­sidered.

³Where either of the two cham­bers re­jects the pro­pos­al to di­vide the bill and if the cham­ber that has re­jec­ted the di­vi­sion con­firms its de­cision, the bill is passed on to the oth­er cham­ber only after a vote has been taken on the bill in its en­tirety.

¹Where, fol­low­ing con­sid­er­a­tion of a bill, there are dif­fer­ences between the cham­bers, the di­ver­gent de­cisions of each cham­ber shall be re­ferred to the oth­er cham­ber for con­sid­er­a­tion, un­til agree­ment is reached between the two cham­bers.

²Fol­low­ing the ini­tial con­sid­er­a­tion in each cham­ber, any fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion shall be lim­ited ex­clus­ively to the is­sues on which no agree­ment has been reached.

³A cham­ber may re­con­sider any oth­er is­sue only if this be­comes ne­ces­sary as a res­ult of de­cisions taken in the in­ter­ven­ing peri­od or if the pre­lim­in­ary con­sulta­tion com­mit­tees of both cham­bers move jointly for the is­sue to be re­con­sidered.

The cham­bers may in re­sponse to a joint mo­tion from their re­spect­ive pre­lim­in­ary con­sulta­tion com­mit­tees aban­don a bill dur­ing or on com­ple­tion of the pro­ced­ure for the res­ol­u­tion of dif­fer­ences.

¹If there are still dif­fer­ences fol­low­ing three de­tailed dis­cus­sions in each cham­ber, a con­cili­ation com­mit­tee shall be ap­poin­ted. This com­mit­tee is re­spons­ible for seek­ing a com­prom­ise solu­tion.

²The pre­lim­in­ary con­sulta­tion com­mit­tees shall each con­trib­ute 13 mem­bers to the con­cili­ation com­mit­tee. If the pre­lim­in­ary con­sulta­tion com­mit­tee of a cham­ber com­prises few­er than 13 mem­bers, ad­di­tion­al mem­bers must be ad­ded to reach this num­ber. The com­pos­i­tion of the del­eg­a­tions from each com­mit­tee is gov­erned by Art­icle 43 para­graph 3.

³The com­mit­tee pres­id­ent of the first cham­ber shall chair the con­cili­ation com­mit­tee. The pres­id­ent's deputy and the mem­bers of the con­cili­ation com­mit­tee are ap­poin­ted in ac­cord­ance with the rel­ev­ant pro­vi­sions of the Stand­ing Or­ders.¹

¹The con­cili­ation com­mit­tee is quor­ate when a ma­jor­ity of the mem­bers of each of the two del­eg­a­tions is present. The quor­um must be ex­pressly con­firmed.

²The con­cili­ation com­mit­tee reaches its de­cisions on the basis of the ma­jor­ity of the votes cast by its mem­bers. The com­mit­tee pres­id­ent may par­ti­cip­ate in the vote. In the event of a tie, the pres­id­ent has the cast­ing vote.

³The con­cili­ation com­mit­tee shall pro­pose a com­prom­ise mo­tion that elim­in­ates the re­main­ing dif­fer­ences in their en­tirety.

¹The com­prom­ise mo­tion shall be sub­mit­ted first of all to the first cham­ber and, provided it votes in fa­vour of the mo­tion in its en­tirety, it shall then be sub­mit­ted to the oth­er cham­ber.

²If the com­prom­ise mo­tion is re­jec­ted by either of the cham­bers, the bill must be aban­doned.

Where a com­prom­ise mo­tion on a Fed­er­al De­cree on the Fed­er­al Budget or a sup­ple­ment­ary cred­it is re­jec­ted, the de­cree based on the third round of de­lib­er­a­tions that provides for a lower amount shall be ac­cep­ted.

¹If the fed­er­al de­cree on the le­gis­lature plan is the sub­ject of dif­fer­ences between the cham­bers fol­low­ing the first read­ing of the bill, the con­cili­ation com­mit­tee shall be ap­poin­ted.

²In the case of the fed­er­al de­crees on the le­gis­lature plan and the fin­an­cial plan, the con­cili­ation com­mit­tee shall pro­pose a com­prom­ise mo­tion in re­spect of each dif­fer­ence. A sep­ar­ate vote is held on each mo­tion.³

³If any mo­tion is re­jec­ted, the re­lated pro­vi­sion shall be de­leted.

If the di­ver­gent de­cisions of the two cham­bers re­late to an en­tire item of busi­ness, the second re­jec­tion by either cham­ber is fi­nal. The fore­go­ing ap­plies in par­tic­u­lar to:

a.

the in­tro­duc­tion of bill;

b.

the ac­cept­ance of a bill in the vote on the bill in its en­tirety;

c.

the ap­prov­al of a treaty un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law;

d.

the guar­an­tee of a can­ton­al con­sti­tu­tion;

e.

an opin­ion on a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive in the form of a gen­er­al pro­pos­al;

f.

the ur­gency clause;

g.¹

the de­cision on wheth­er a can­ton­al ini­ti­at­ive should be en­dorsed;

h.

the ap­prov­al of Fed­er­al Coun­cil or­din­ances;

i.²

...

j.

the con­tinu­ation of an item of busi­ness in re­spect of which a mo­tion for aban­don­ment has been made.

Where a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive for the com­plete re­vi­sion of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion is de­clared suc­cess­ful, the Fed­er­al As­sembly shall sub­mit the ini­ti­at­ive to the vote of the people.

¹The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall sub­mit to the Fed­er­al As­sembly:

a.

at the latest one year after sub­mis­sion of a suc­cess­ful pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive, a dis­patch and the draft of a fed­er­al de­cree for the con­sid­er­a­tion of the Fed­er­al As­sembly;

b.

at the latest one year after the ap­prov­al of the people or of the Fed­er­al As­sembly of an ini­ti­at­ive sub­mit­ted in the form of a gen­er­al pro­pos­al, a dis­patch and the draft of a fed­er­al de­cree for a par­tial re­vi­sion of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion.

²If the Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­cides to draw up a draft fed­er­al de­cree on a counter-pro­pos­al or a bill that is closely re­lated to the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive, the fore­go­ing peri­od shall be ex­ten­ded to 18 months.¹

³If the Fed­er­al Coun­cil does not sub­mit its dis­patch and the draft of a fed­er­al de­cree to the Fed­er­al As­sembly in due time, a rel­ev­ant com­mit­tee may draw up the ne­ces­sary bill.²

¹The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall de­clare a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive wholly or partly in­val­id if it holds that the re­quire­ments of Art­icle 139 para­graph 3 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion have not been ful­filled.

²If the de­cisions of the two cham­bers in re­la­tion to the valid­ity of the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive or of parts there­of di­verge from each oth­er and the cham­ber that has ap­proved the valid­ity of the ini­ti­at­ive con­firms its de­cision, the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive or, de­pend­ing on the case, its dis­puted part, shall be held to be val­id.

³If the com­prom­ise mo­tion on the vot­ing re­com­mend­a­tion is re­jec­ted, in derog­a­tion from Art­icle 93 para. 2 only the pro­vi­sion con­cerned shall be de­leted.¹

¹Pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ives, or all the val­id parts there­of, must be sub­mit­ted to the vote of the people as they stand.

²The Draft­ing Com­mit­tee re­serves the right to cor­rect ob­vi­ous trans­la­tion er­rors and to make any form­al ad­just­ments ne­ces­sary to in­cor­por­ate the pro­posed con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment in­to the Con­sti­tu­tion. The Com­mit­tee shall give the ini­ti­at­ive com­mit­tee the op­por­tun­ity to ex­press its opin­ion.¹

The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall de­cide with­in 30 months of the sub­mis­sion of a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive in the form of a draft pro­pos­al wheth­er it re­com­mends that the people and the Can­tons ac­cept or re­ject the ini­ti­at­ive.

¹The Fed­er­al As­sembly may sub­mit its own counter-pro­pos­al on the same con­sti­tu­tion­al is­sue to the vote of the people and the Can­tons at the same time as the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive.

²The fed­er­al de­cree on the counter-pro­pos­al of the Fed­er­al As­sembly shall be de­bated in each cham­ber pri­or to the As­sembly de­cid­ing on the vot­ing re­com­mend­a­tion in the fed­er­al de­cree on the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive.

³ The fi­nal vote on the fed­er­al de­cree on the counter-pro­pos­al shall take place no more than eight days be­fore the end of the ses­sion which pre­cedes the ex­piry of the dead­line for deal­ing with the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive. If the fed­er­al de­cree is re­jec­ted by either cham­ber in the fi­nal vote, the con­cili­ation com­mit­tee shall sub­mit a pro­pos­al on the vot­ing re­com­mend­a­tion in the fed­er­al de­cree on the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive. A counter-pro­pos­al may no longer be put for­ward.

¹Where the Fed­er­al As­sembly sub­mits a counter pro­pos­al in ad­di­tion to the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive to the vote of the people and the Can­tons, it may:

a.

re­com­mend that the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive be re­jec­ted and the counter-pro­pos­al ac­cep­ted; or

b.

re­com­mend that both bills be ac­cep­ted.

²If the As­sembly re­com­mends the ac­cept­ance of both bills, it shall re­com­mend that voters ac­cept the counter-pro­pos­al in the third ques­tion.

¹The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall de­cide with­in two years of sub­mis­sion of a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive in the form of a gen­er­al pro­pos­al wheth­er it ap­proves or re­jects the ini­ti­at­ive.

²If the Fed­er­al As­sembly re­jects the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive, it shall sub­mit the ini­ti­at­ive to the vote of the people.

¹If the Fed­er­al As­sembly ap­proves a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive, or if the people vote in fa­vour of an ini­ti­at­ive, the Fed­er­al As­sembly shall with­in two years draft a par­tial re­vi­sion to the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion.

²The draft pre­pared by the Fed­er­al As­sembly shall cor­res­pond strictly to the con­tent and ob­ject­ives of the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive.

³Where the cham­bers are un­able to agree on the draft of the par­tial re­vi­sion or if the draft is re­jec­ted by one or both cham­bers, the de­cisions of the cham­bers from the most re­cent dis­cus­sion shall be sub­mit­ted to the vote of the people as al­tern­at­ives.

¹If one cham­ber reaches a de­cision on a counter-pro­pos­al or on a bill closely re­lated to a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive, the Fed­er­al As­sembly may ex­tend the dead­line for deal­ing with the mat­ter by one year.

^1bis...¹

² If the cham­bers are un­able to agree on an ex­ten­sion of dead­line, no ex­ten­sion shall be gran­ted.

If the cham­bers are un­able to reach a un­an­im­ous de­cision by the stat­utory dead­line, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall or­der that a pop­u­lar vote be held.

¹A par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive may be used to pro­pose that com­mit­tee pre­pare a draft Fed­er­al As­sembly bill.

²The reas­ons for the par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive must be stated. The state­ment of reas­ons must in par­tic­u­lar in­clude the aims of the bill.

³A com­mit­tee may sub­mit a bill to its Coun­cil by means of a par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive.

The par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive of a coun­cil mem­ber or of a par­lia­ment­ary group shall be in­ad­miss­ible if it relates to mat­ters that may be sub­mit­ted as a pro­pos­al re­lat­ing to a bill pending be­fore the Fed­er­al As­sembly. The Of­fice of the Coun­cil may de­cide on ex­cep­tions to the fore­go­ing.

¹Par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ives brought by a coun­cil mem­ber or a par­lia­ment­ary group, to­geth­er with pro­pos­als sub­mit­ted to a com­mit­tee for the pre­par­a­tion of an ini­ti­at­ive by that com­mit­tee shall be sub­ject to a pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion.

²The rel­ev­ant com­mit­tee of the cham­ber to which the ini­ti­at­ive has been sub­mit­ted shall de­cide with­in one year of be­ing as­signed the ini­ti­at­ive wheth­er to en­dorse the ini­ti­at­ive or wheth­er to in­struct its cham­ber not to en­dorse the ini­ti­at­ive. If the cham­ber fol­lows the in­struc­tions of the com­mit­tee, the ini­ti­at­ive is re­garded as hav­ing been dealt with.¹

³The de­cision to en­dorse an ini­ti­at­ive or to have the com­mit­tee pre­pare its own ini­ti­at­ive re­quires the con­sent of the rel­ev­ant com­mit­tee of the oth­er cham­ber. This com­mit­tee shall in­vite the com­mit­tee re­spons­ible for the ini­tial con­sid­er­a­tion to ap­point a del­eg­a­tion to present its de­cision. If the lat­ter com­mit­tee does not con­sent, the ini­ti­at­ive is only en­dorsed if both cham­bers agree. If the second cham­ber does not agree, the ini­ti­at­ive is ir­re­voc­ably re­jec­ted.²

^3bisThe com­mit­tee of the oth­er cham­ber and, in the event of dis­agree­ment, the rel­ev­ant com­mit­tees of the cham­bers de­cide in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 3 or sub­mit their pro­pos­al to their cham­ber one year at the latest after the pre­ced­ing com­mit­tee or Coun­cil de­cision on the ini­ti­at­ive.³

⁴If the au­thor of an ini­ti­at­ive or the re­quest for the pre­par­a­tion of an ini­ti­at­ive is not a mem­ber of the com­mit­tee, he or she may par­ti­cip­ate in the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion in an ad­vis­ory ca­pa­city at the meet­ings of the com­mit­tee of his or her cham­ber.⁴

⁵If the au­thor of an ini­ti­at­ive leaves the coun­cil and if no oth­er as­sembly mem­ber takes up the ini­ti­at­ive dur­ing the first week of the fol­low­ing ses­sion, the ini­ti­at­ive shall be aban­doned without a coun­cil de­cision un­less the com­mit­tee has already en­dorsed the ini­ti­at­ive.⁵

¹An ini­ti­at­ive shall be en­dorsed or a pro­pos­al for the pre­par­a­tion of an ini­ti­at­ive shall be ap­proved if the need in prin­ciple for le­gis­la­tion is con­firmed and a par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive is judged to be the ap­pro­pri­ate course of ac­tion.

²A par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive shall in par­tic­u­lar be judged ap­pro­pri­ate if:

a.

the ini­ti­at­ive pro­poses a bill re­lat­ing to the or­gan­isa­tion or pro­ced­ures of the Fed­er­al As­sembly;

b.

the Fed­er­al Coun­cil has not pre­pared a bill in time, des­pite a mo­tion be­ing passed to this ef­fect; or

c.¹

the pre­par­a­tion of a bill by this means will prob­ably be achieved more quickly than by a mo­tion.

³The com­mit­tee shall ex­am­ine how it can pre­pare the bill in the time re­quired, tak­ing ac­count of the meth­ods at its dis­pos­al.

¹If an ini­ti­at­ive is en­dorsed, the rel­ev­ant com­mit­tee of the cham­ber to which the ini­ti­at­ive was sub­mit­ted shall pre­pare a bill with­in two years.

²If the au­thor of an ini­ti­at­ive or the re­quest for the pre­par­a­tion of an ini­ti­at­ive is not a mem­ber of the com­mit­tee, he or she may par­ti­cip­ate in the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion in an ad­vis­ory ca­pa­city at the meet­ings of the com­mit­tee of his or her cham­ber.¹

³The re­port ex­plain­ing the com­mit­tee bill to the Fed­er­al As­sembly shall ful­fil the re­quire­ments for a Fed­er­al Coun­cil Dis­patch (Art. 141).

¹The com­mit­tee may in­volve the Fed­er­al De­part­ment re­spons­ible in or­der to ob­tain all the leg­al and ma­ter­i­al in­form­a­tion re­quired for the pre­par­a­tion of a bill.

²It shall sub­mit the pre­lim­in­ary draft and its ex­plan­at­ory re­port for con­sulta­tion in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the Con­sulta­tion Pro­ced­ure Act of 18 March 2005¹.²

³It shall sub­mit the re­port and bill that it sub­mits to its Coun­cil to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil at the same time in or­der that the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may state its opin­ion there­on with­in an ap­pro­pri­ate peri­od; ex­cep­ted from the fore­go­ing are pro­vi­sions on the or­gan­isa­tion or the pro­ced­ures of the Fed­er­al As­sembly that are not laid down by stat­ute and which do not dir­ectly af­fect Fed­er­al Coun­cil.³

⁴If the Fed­er­al Coun­cil re­quests any al­ter­a­tion, the com­mit­tee shall dis­cuss the opin­ion of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil be­fore con­sid­er­a­tion of the bill in the first cham­ber.

¹If the com­mit­tee does not sub­mit its bill with­in two years, the coun­cil shall de­cide at the re­quest of the com­mit­tee or of its of­fice wheth­er the dead­line should be ex­ten­ded or the ini­ti­at­ive aban­doned.

²The com­mit­tee may re­quest the coun­cil to aban­don the ini­ti­at­ive if:

a.

its pur­pose has been ful­filled by an­oth­er bill; or

b.

the man­date con­ferred on the com­mit­tee can no longer be car­ried out.

¹If the coun­cil ap­proves its com­mit­tee's bill in the vote on the bill in its en­tirety, the ini­ti­at­ive is sub­mit­ted to the oth­er cham­ber and is fur­ther con­sidered in ac­cord­ance with the or­din­ary pro­ced­ure for bills.¹

^1bisIf the coun­cil does not ap­prove the in­tro­duc­tion of its com­mit­tee's bill or re­jects it in the vote on the bill in its en­tirety, the ini­ti­at­ive is re­garded as hav­ing been dealt with.²

²In the com­mit­tee of the second cham­ber, the draft from the first cham­ber is presen­ted by a mem­ber of the com­mit­tee that pre­pared it.

¹Any can­ton may by means of a can­ton­al ini­ti­at­ive pro­pose that a com­mit­tee pre­pare a draft Fed­er­al As­sembly bill.

²The reas­ons for the can­ton­al ini­ti­at­ive must be stated. The state­ment of reas­ons must in par­tic­u­lar in­clude the aims of the bill.

¹Can­ton­al ini­ti­at­ives are sub­ject to a pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion.

²For the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion, Art­icle 110 ap­plies by ana­logy.

³The de­cision to en­dorse an ini­ti­at­ive re­quires the agree­ment of the com­mit­tees re­spons­ible in both cham­bers. If one com­mit­tee does not agree, the coun­cil shall de­cide. If the coun­cil does not agree, the ini­ti­at­ive shall go to the oth­er cham­ber. The second re­jec­tion by a coun­cil is fi­nal.

^3bisThe com­mit­tees are sub­ject to the time lim­its in Art­icle 109 para­graphs 2 and 3^bis.¹

⁴The com­mit­tee of the first cham­ber shall hear a rep­res­ent­at­ive of the Can­ton at the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion.

¹If an ini­ti­at­ive is en­dorsed, it shall be real­loc­ated to one of the cham­bers for ini­tial con­sid­er­a­tion in ac­cord­ance with the pro­ced­ure laid down in Art­icle 84.

²For the fur­ther pro­ced­ure, Art­icles 111–114 ap­ply by ana­logy. The aban­don­ment of an ini­ti­at­ive re­quires the agree­ment of the oth­er cham­ber. If the first cham­ber de­cides not to ap­prove the draft of the com­mit­tee, or if the draft is re­jec­ted when voted on in its en­tirety, this shall be re­garded as equi­val­ent to aban­don­ment.

¹Par­lia­ment­ary pro­ced­ur­al re­quests are:

a.

mo­tions;

b.

pos­tu­lates;

c.

in­ter­pel­la­tions;

d.

ques­tions.

²They shall nor­mally be ad­dressed to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

³If they re­late to the or­gan­isa­tion or pro­ced­ures of the Fed­er­al As­sembly, they shall nor­mally be ad­dressed to the of­fice of the coun­cil to which they are sub­mit­ted.

⁴They shall be ad­dressed to the fed­er­al courts if they re­late to the con­duct of busi­ness or fin­an­cial budget of the fed­er­al courts; mo­tions are ex­cluded.

^4bisThey shall be ad­dressed to the Su­per­vis­ory Au­thor­ity for the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land if they re­late to the man­age­ment or budget of the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land or its Su­per­vis­ory Au­thor­ity; mo­tions are ex­cluded.¹

⁵In the case of pro­ced­ur­al re­quests made to the of­fices of the cham­bers and to the fed­er­al courts, Art­icles 120–125 ap­ply by ana­logy.²

¹Pro­ced­ur­al re­quests may be sub­mit­ted by the ma­jor­ity of the mem­bers of a com­mit­tee, as well as by a par­lia­ment­ary group or an as­sembly mem­ber dur­ing a par­lia­ment­ary ses­sion.

²If a pro­ced­ur­al re­quest relates to more than one ma­ter­i­al point, a sep­ar­ate dis­cus­sion and vote may be held on each point.

³The word­ing of a pro­ced­ur­al re­quest may not be altered after its sub­mis­sion; Art­icle 121 para­graph 4 let­ter b is re­served.¹

⁴...²

⁵A pro­ced­ur­al re­quest made by a coun­cil mem­ber or a par­lia­ment­ary group shall be aban­doned without a coun­cil de­cision if:

a.

the coun­cil has not fin­ished deal­ing with the pro­ced­ur­al re­quest with­in two years of its sub­mis­sion; or

b.

the au­thor leaves the coun­cil and no oth­er as­sembly mem­ber takes up the pro­ced­ur­al re­quest dur­ing the first week of the fol­low­ing ses­sion.³

⁶...⁴

¹A mo­tion man­dates the Fed­er­al Coun­cil to sub­mit a bill to the Fed­er­al As­sembly or to take cer­tain ac­tion.

²If the Fed­er­al Coun­cil is re­spons­ible for tak­ing ac­tion, it shall do so or sub­mit to the Fed­er­al As­sembly the draft bill by means of which the mo­tion may be im­ple­men­ted.

³A mo­tion shall be in­ad­miss­ible if it seeks to in­flu­ence an ad­min­is­trat­ive rul­ing or an ap­peal de­cision that must be taken as part of a pro­ced­ure reg­u­lated by the law.

¹The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall nor­mally pro­pose the ac­cept­ance or re­jec­tion of a mo­tion by the start of the next or­din­ary ses­sion fol­low­ing its sub­mis­sion. It shall sub­mit its pro­pos­al in re­la­tion to a com­mit­tee mo­tion that is sub­mit­ted less than a month be­fore the start of the next or­din­ary ses­sion by the start of the ses­sion fol­low­ing the next ses­sion.

²If one cham­ber re­jects a mo­tion, the mo­tion is re­garded as hav­ing been dealt with. If the cham­ber to which the mo­tion has been sub­mit­ted ap­proves the same, the mo­tion goes to the oth­er cham­ber.

³A mo­tion ac­cep­ted by the first cham­ber may in the second cham­ber be:

a.

ir­re­voc­ably ac­cep­ted or re­jec­ted;

b.

amended on the pro­pos­al of the ma­jor­ity of the com­mit­tee re­spons­ible for the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion or on the pro­pos­al of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

⁴If the second cham­ber makes an amend­ment, the first cham­ber may in the second con­sid­er­a­tion agree to the amend­ment or ir­re­voc­ably re­ject the mo­tion.

⁵A mo­tion ac­cep­ted by the first cham­ber without the agree­ment of the second cham­ber shall be ir­re­voc­ably ac­cep­ted if:

a.

it relates to or­gan­isa­tion­al or pro­ced­ur­al is­sues of the cham­ber to which it has been sub­mit­ted; or

b.

it is a com­mit­tee mo­tion and an identic­al com­mit­tee mo­tion is ac­cep­ted in the oth­er cham­ber.

¹If a mo­tion is still pending after two years, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall re­port to the Fed­er­al As­sembly each year on what it has done in re­la­tion thereto and on how it in­tends to ful­fil the man­date. This re­port shall be sub­mit­ted to the com­mit­tees re­spons­ible.

²A com­mit­tee or the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall re­quest that a mo­tion be closed if its man­date has been ful­filled. The re­quest shall be ad­dressed to both cham­bers un­less the mo­tion relates to is­sues of the or­gan­isa­tion or pro­ced­ure of a spe­cif­ic cham­ber.

³A re­quest for a mo­tion to be closed may also be made if the man­date has not been ful­filled but the mo­tion should no longer be pur­sued. The re­quest shall be jus­ti­fied:

a.

with a spe­cial re­port on the mo­tion to be closed; or

b.

in a dis­patch on a Fed­er­al As­sembly bill on sub­ject mat­ter con­nec­ted with the mo­tion.

⁴If the de­cisions of the two cham­bers on the re­quest to close a mo­tion do not cor­res­pond, the pro­ced­ure for the set­tle­ment of dif­fer­ences in Art­icle 95 ap­plies.

⁵If a re­quest to close a mo­tion is re­jec­ted by both cham­bers, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil must ful­fil the man­date con­tained in the mo­tion with­in one year or with­in the peri­od fixed by the two cham­bers on re­ject­ing the re­quest.

⁶If the Fed­er­al Coun­cil fails to com­ply with the peri­od fixed, a de­cision on ex­tend­ing the peri­od al­lowed or on clos­ing the mo­tion shall be taken in the next or­din­ary ses­sion in both cham­bers at the re­quest of the com­mit­tees re­spons­ible.

A pos­tu­late man­dates the Fed­er­al Coun­cil to ex­am­ine and re­port on wheth­er to sub­mit a bill to the Fed­er­al As­sembly or to take a meas­ure. It may also re­quest a re­port on a dif­fer­ent mat­ter.

¹The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall nor­mally pro­pose the ac­cept­ance or re­jec­tion of pos­tu­lates be­fore the start of the next ses­sion. When a com­mit­tee pos­tu­late is sub­mit­ted less than a month be­fore the start of the next or­din­ary ses­sion, it shall sub­mit its pro­pos­al by the start of the ses­sion fol­low­ing the next ses­sion.¹

²The pos­tu­late shall be ac­cep­ted if either cham­ber ap­proves it.

³The Fed­er­al Coun­cil ful­fils the terms of a pos­tu­late by stat­ing its views there­on in a sep­ar­ate re­port, or in the an­nu­al re­port or in a dis­patch to a bill of the Fed­er­al As­sembly.

⁴If a pos­tu­late is still pending after two years, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall re­port to the Fed­er­al As­sembly each year on what it has done in re­la­tion thereto and on how it in­tends to ful­fil its man­date. This re­port is sub­mit­ted to the com­mit­tees re­spons­ible.

⁵A com­mit­tee or the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­quest that a pos­tu­late be closed if it has been ful­filled or if con­tinu­ing with the pos­tu­late can­not be jus­ti­fied. The cham­ber that has ap­proved the pos­tu­late must con­sent to it be­ing closed.

¹An in­ter­pel­la­tion or a ques­tion is a re­quest to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil to provide in­form­a­tion on mat­ters re­lat­ing to the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

²The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall nor­mally reply by the next ses­sion.

³An in­ter­pel­la­tion or a ques­tion may be de­clared ur­gent.

⁴An in­ter­pel­la­tion is dealt with if the dis­cus­sion re­ques­ted by its au­thor has taken place in the coun­cil or when the coun­cil has re­jec­ted the re­quest for the dis­cus­sion.

⁵A ques­tion is not dis­cussed in the coun­cil; it is dealt with by the reply from the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

¹The re­spons­ible com­mit­tee in each cham­ber shall de­cide wheth­er to en­dorse a pe­ti­tion or wheth­er it shall re­quest its cham­ber not to en­dorse the pe­ti­tion.

²If the sub­ject of the pe­ti­tion can be presen­ted in the form of a pro­pos­al re­lat­ing to a mat­ter pending for con­sid­er­a­tion, the com­mit­tee shall re­port on the pe­ti­tion to the coun­cil when it is deal­ing with that busi­ness. The com­mit­tee shall de­cide either to sub­mit a pro­pos­al on the mat­ter or dis­pense with a pro­pos­al. The pe­ti­tion shall be aban­doned without a coun­cil de­cision as soon as the mat­ter has been dealt with.

³Fol­low­ing the con­clu­sion of the con­sid­er­a­tion of a pe­ti­tion, the Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices shall no­ti­fy the pe­ti­tion­ers as to wheth­er their con­cerns have been taken in­to ac­count.

⁴The pres­id­ents of the com­mit­tees re­spons­ible for the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion in each cham­ber may re­spond dir­ectly to a pe­ti­tion if:

a.

its aim can­not be achieved by a par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive, a pro­ced­ur­al re­quest or a pro­pos­al;

b.

its con­tent is clearly ab­surd, quer­ulous or of­fens­ive.

If the com­mit­tee en­dorses a pe­ti­tion, it shall take up the mat­ter to which the pe­ti­tion relates by pre­par­ing a par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive or a pro­ced­ur­al re­quest.

¹The com­mit­tee shall re­quest its coun­cil not to en­dorse the pe­ti­tion if it:

a.

re­jects the mat­ter to which the pe­ti­tion relates;

b.

es­tab­lishes that the mat­ter to which the pe­ti­tion relates has already been dealt with by an­oth­er com­pet­ent au­thor­ity;

c.

re­gards the mat­ter to which the pe­ti­tion relates as hav­ing been dealt with.

²If the coun­cil dis­reg­ards the pro­pos­al of the com­mit­tee and en­dorses the pe­ti­tion, it shall refer the pe­ti­tion and man­date back to the com­mit­tee and in­struct the com­mit­tee to take up the mat­ter in a par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive or a pro­ced­ur­al re­quest.

A sub­mis­sion on the con­duct of busi­ness and on the fin­an­cial policy of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion, the fed­er­al courts or of oth­er per­sons en­trus­ted with tasks by the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall be al­loc­ated to the Con­trol or Fin­ance Com­mit­tees for a dir­ect re­sponse.

¹If the Fed­er­al Coun­cil files an ob­jec­tion to a treaty between Can­tons or between a Can­ton and a for­eign state, it shall sub­mit to the Fed­er­al As­sembly the draft of a simple fed­er­al de­cree on the ap­prov­al of the treaty.

²If a Can­ton files an ob­jec­tion, the re­spons­ible com­mit­tee of the first cham­ber shall sub­mit to its cham­ber the draft of a simple fed­er­al de­cree on the ap­prov­al of the treaty.

¹Vot­ing in elec­tions in the Fed­er­al As­sembly is car­ried out by secret bal­lot.

²The per­sons elec­ted shall be those whose names are writ­ten on more than half of the val­id bal­lot pa­pers.

³When de­term­in­ing an ab­so­lute ma­jor­ity, un­com­pleted in­val­id bal­lot pa­pers shall not be coun­ted.

⁴If more can­did­ates achieve an ab­so­lute ma­jor­ity than there are va­cant seats, the sur­plus can­did­ates with the lower num­bers of votes shall be elim­in­ated.

¹Bal­lot pa­pers that con­tain de­fam­at­ory state­ments or ob­vi­ously ir­rel­ev­ant mark­ings shall be de­clared in­val­id.

²Votes for per­sons not eli­gible for elec­tion, or who have already been elec­ted or elim­in­ated from the elec­tion, to­geth­er with votes for per­sons who are not ad­equately iden­ti­fied are can­celled.

³If the name of a can­did­ate is writ­ten more than once on a bal­lot pa­per, the sur­plus name or names are de­leted.

⁴If the bal­lot pa­per con­tains more names than there are man­dates to be al­loc­ated, the sur­plus names are de­leted, be­gin­ning from the end of the list.

⁵If the num­ber of bal­lot pa­pers re­ceived ex­ceeds that of the bal­lot pa­pers dis­trib­uted, the bal­lot shall be de­clared in­val­id and shall be re­run.

¹The mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil are elec­ted by the United Fed­er­al As­sembly in the ses­sion fol­low­ing the gen­er­al elec­tion to the Na­tion­al Coun­cil.

²The seats are filled in­di­vidu­ally, one after the oth­er, in the or­der of the length of peri­od in of­fice of the serving of­fice hold­ers. Seats for which serving mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil are stand­ing as can­did­ates are filled first.

³In the first two bal­lots, any per­son who is eli­gible for elec­tion may be voted for. From the third bal­lot on­wards, no ad­di­tion­al can­did­atures are per­mit­ted.

⁴Ex­cluded from the elec­tion are:

a.

those who ob­tain few­er than ten votes from the second bal­lot on­wards; and

b.

the per­son who re­ceives the low­est num­ber of votes from the third bal­lot on­wards, un­less more than one per­son re­ceives this same num­ber of votes.

¹Elec­tions in re­spect of va­cant seats are nor­mally held in the ses­sion fol­low­ing re­ceipt of the let­ter of resig­na­tion of the mem­ber, fol­low­ing a mem­ber un­ex­pec­tedly va­cat­ing his or her seat or fol­low­ing the de­clar­a­tion that the mem­ber is un­able to dis­charge his or her du­ties of of­fice.¹

²The newly-elec­ted mem­ber as­sumes of­fice at the latest two months after his or her elec­tion.

³If elec­tions are held to more than one va­cant seat, the or­der in which the elec­tions are held is de­term­ined by the length of peri­od in of­fice of the pre­vi­ous of­fice hold­er.

The Pres­id­ent of the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Vice-Pres­id­ent of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil are elec­ted from its mem­bers in­di­vidu­ally, one after the oth­er, for a term of of­fice of one year.

¹Elec­tions to the fed­er­al courts take place be­fore the end of the on­go­ing term of of­fice. Sep­ar­ate elec­tions are held for each of the vari­ous courts, as well as for each of the judges and part-time judges.

²The elec­tions take place either by means of the re-elec­tion of mem­bers who are stand­ing for re-elec­tion or, in the case of va­cant seats or the re­mov­al of a mem­ber, by means of a sup­ple­ment­ary elec­tion.

¹The bal­lot pa­per is a list of names of the mem­bers stand­ing for elec­tion, in the or­der of the length of their peri­od in of­fice.

²The voters may de­lete the names of in­di­vidu­al can­did­ates. Ad­di­tion­al names are not taken in­to con­sid­er­a­tion. Bal­lot pa­pers on which all the names have been de­leted re­main val­id and count to­wards the cal­cu­la­tion of the ab­so­lute ma­jor­ity.

³Only one bal­lot is held. Can­did­ates who do not achieve an ab­so­lute ma­jor­ity may stand in the sup­ple­ment­ary elec­tion.

¹Sup­ple­ment­ary elec­tions take place if a va­cant seat arises or a mem­ber is not re-elec­ted.

²If by the day be­fore the elec­tions the of­fice the United Fed­er­al As­sembly has not re­ceived more can­did­ate nom­in­a­tions than there are va­cant seats, a list of the names of the can­did­ates in al­pha­bet­ic­al or­der shall serve as the bal­lot pa­per, or a list without names but with the same num­ber of lines as there are seats to be filled.

³In the first two bal­lots, all those who are eli­gible for elec­tion may be elec­ted. From the third bal­lot on­wards no fur­ther can­did­atures are per­mit­ted.

⁴Ex­cluded from the elec­tion are:

a.

those who ob­tain few­er than ten votes from the second bal­lot on­wards; and

b.

from the third bal­lot on­wards, provided there are more can­did­ates than va­cant seats, the per­son who re­ceives the low­est num­ber of votes, un­less more than one per­son re­ceives this same num­ber of votes.

The pres­id­ent and the vice-pres­id­ent of a court are elec­ted for a term of of­fice of two years. They are elec­ted at the same time on two sep­ar­ate bal­lot pa­pers.

The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall con­duct oth­er elec­tions provided for by the Con­sti­tu­tion or the law in ac­cord­ance with the rules on the elec­tions to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.