Standing Orders of the National Council
(SO-NC)

¹ Fol­low­ing the gen­er­al elec­tion, the newly-elec­ted Coun­cil shall con­vene to hold its con­stitutive sit­ting on the day de­term­ined by law.

² At this meet­ing, the Coun­cil:

a.

hears speeches by the Old­est Mem­ber and by the young­est des­ig­nated mem­ber of the Coun­cil elec­ted for the first time;

b.

es­tab­lishes the con­sti­tu­tion of the Coun­cil;

c.

swears in the mem­bers of the Coun­cil present whose elec­tion was un­con­tested or de­clared val­id;

d.

es­tab­lishes pos­sible in­com­pat­ib­il­it­ies;

e.

elects the Pres­id­ent;

f.

elects the First Vice-Pres­id­ent;

g.

elects the Second Vice-Pres­id­ent;

h.

con­ducts a sum­mary elec­tion of the Tell­ers;

i.

con­ducts a sum­mary elec­tion of the Deputy Tell­ers.

¹ The Old­est Mem­ber is the coun­cil mem­ber who has served the longest un­in­ter­rup­ted term. If two or more mem­bers of the Coun­cil have served the same term, the older mem­ber shall take pre­ced­ence.

² The Coun­cil Bur­eau for the pre­vi­ous le­gis­lat­ive peri­od shall des­ig­nate the Old­est Mem­ber based on the re­port of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil on the res­ults of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil elec­tions.

³ If the Old­est Mem­ber is un­able to as­sume of­fice, the of­fice shall be as­sumed by the coun­cil mem­ber next in line in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 of this Art­icle.

¹ The Old­est Mem­ber:

a.

des­ig­nates the eight oth­er mem­bers of the Pro­vi­sion­al Bur­eau in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 43, para­graph 3 ParlA;

b.

chairs the Pro­vi­sion­al Bur­eau;

c.

chairs the Coun­cil un­til the new Pres­id­ent is elec­ted.

² The oth­er tasks of Pres­id­ent are car­ried out by the Pres­id­ent of the pre­vi­ous le­gis­lat­ive peri­od un­til the new Pres­id­ent is elec­ted.

¹ The Pro­vi­sion­al Bur­eau shall:

a.

veri­fy wheth­er the elec­tions of the ma­jor­ity of coun­cil mem­bers have re­mained un­con­tested or have been de­clared val­id, and if so, pro­pose that the Coun­cil de­clare that it is con­sti­tuted;

b.

veri­fy wheth­er any of the newly elec­ted mem­bers of the coun­cil are sub­ject to the in­com­pat­ib­il­ity pro­vi­sions of Art­icle 14 let­ters b-f ParlA, and, if ap­plic­able, pro­pose a de­clar­a­tion of in­com­pat­ib­il­ity;

c.

as­cer­tain the res­ults of the votes and elec­tions in the Coun­cil, un­til the new Bur­eau is elec­ted.

² The oth­er tasks of the Bur­eau are car­ried out by the out­go­ing Bur­eau of the pre­vi­ous le­gis­lat­ive peri­od un­til the new Bur­eau is elec­ted.

¹ All per­sons present in the cham­ber shall rise for the swear­ing-in.

² The Pres­id­ent shall re­quest the Sec­ret­ary-Gen­er­al to read out the sol­emn prom­ise or oath.

³ Per­sons swear­ing the oath raise shall three fin­gers of their right hand and say the words «I swear»; per­sons mak­ing the sol­emn prom­ise say the words «I sol­emnly prom­ise».

¹ The Coun­cil shall elect the mem­bers of the Presid­ing Col­lege im­me­di­ately after its con­sti­tu­tion, and shall do so for the fol­low­ing years of the le­gis­lat­ive peri­od at its first sit­ting of the par­lia­ment­ary year.

² It shall take ap­pro­pri­ate ac­count of the size of the par­lia­ment­ary groups and the of­fi­cial lan­guages.

³ If a va­cancy arises in the Presid­ing Col­lege dur­ing the term of of­fice, the Coun­cil shall elect a sub­sti­tute mem­ber for the re­main­ing peri­od; if the post of Pres­id­ent be­comes va­cant, the Coun­cil shall hold a sub­sti­tute elec­tion if the Pres­id­ent leaves of­fice be­fore the start of the sum­mer ses­sion.

¹ The Pres­id­ent shall ful­fil the tasks con­ferred on him or her by law and shall:

a.

chair the Coun­cil’s meet­ings;

b.

es­tab­lish the agenda, sub­ject to Coun­cil de­cisions to the con­trary, tak­ing in­to con­sid­er­a­tion the pro­gramme of the par­lia­ment­ary ses­sion es­tab­lished by the Bur­eau;

c.

chair the Presid­ing Col­lege and the Bur­eau;

d.

rep­res­ent the Coun­cil in its ex­tern­al deal­ings.

² If the Pres­id­ent is un­able to chair the meet­ing, or wishes by way of ex­cep­tion to par­ti­cip­ate in a de­bate, he or she shall be re­placed pro­vi­sion­ally by the First Vice-Pres­id­ent, or if need be by the Second Vice-Pres­id­ent.

³ If neither Vice-Pres­id­ent is able to chair the meet­ing, the pres­id­ency shall be as­sumed by the fol­low­ing per­sons in this or­der:

a.

a pre­de­cessor; if more than one is present in the Coun­cil, the coun­cil mem­ber who more re­cently ex­er­cised the of­fice shall take pre­ced­ence;

b.

the coun­cil mem­ber who has served the most terms of of­fice; if two or more coun­cil mem­bers have served the same term, the older mem­ber shall take pre­ced­ence.

⁴ The Vice-Pres­id­ents:

a.

sup­port the Pres­id­ent;

b.

carry out with the Pres­id­ent the tasks con­ferred on the Presid­ing Col­lege by law.

⁵ De­cisions of the Presid­ing Col­lege re­quire the ap­prov­al of at least two of its mem­bers.

¹ The Bur­eau com­prises:

a.

the three mem­bers of the Presid­ing Col­lege;

b.

the four Tell­ers;

c.

the pres­id­ents of the groups.

² In the case of im­ped­i­ment, the Tell­ers may be sub­sti­tuted by their re­place­ments, and the group pres­id­ents by any mem­ber of their group.

³ The al­loc­a­tion of seats of Tell­ers and their re­place­ments among the par­lia­ment­ary groups is reg­u­lated by Art­icles 40 and 41 of the Fed­er­al Act of 17 Decem­ber 1976³ on Polit­ic­al Rights; for their term of of­fice, Art­icle 17 para­graph 1 and 4 ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis.

⁴ The Pres­id­ent par­ti­cip­ates in votes in the Bur­eau. In the event of a tie, he or she has the cast­ing vote.

¹ The Bur­eau:

a.

plans the activ­it­ies of the Coun­cil and sets out the ses­sion pro­gramme, sub­ject to de­cisions by the Coun­cil to modi­fy the list of items of busi­ness, or to add or with­draw such items;

b.

de­term­ines the re­mit of the stand­ing com­mit­tees and in­sti­tutes spe­cial com­mit­tees;

c.

al­loc­ates items of busi­ness to the com­mit­tees for pre­lim­in­ary con­sid­er­a­tion, co-re­port­ing or fi­nal ex­am­in­a­tion and sets dead­lines; it may del­eg­ate this task to the Pres­id­ent;

d.

co­ordin­ates the activ­it­ies of the com­mit­tees and de­cides which com­mit­tee is com­pet­ent in the event of dis­agree­ment;

e.

sched­ules the meet­ings of the com­mit­tees for the year;

f.

de­cides on the num­ber of com­mit­tee mem­bers;

g.

elects the pres­id­ents, vice-pres­id­ents, and mem­bers of the com­mit­tees on the re­com­mend­a­tion of the par­lia­ment­ary groups;

h.

as­cer­tains the res­ults of elec­tions and votes; the Pres­id­ent may call on oth­er mem­bers of the coun­cil if the Tell­ers and their re­place­ments are im­peded;

i.

ex­am­ines wheth­er in­com­pat­ib­il­it­ies ex­ist un­der Art­icle 14 ParlA, and, if ne­ces­sary, pro­poses that the Coun­cil con­firm the ex­ist­ence of any in­com­pat­ib­il­ity;

j.

handles all oth­er is­sues of or­gan­isa­tion and pro­ced­ure in the Coun­cil.

² The Bur­eau con­sults the pres­id­ents of the com­mit­tees be­fore tak­ing de­cisions on mat­ters con­cern­ing para­graph 1 let­ters b, c, and e.

The fol­low­ing stand­ing com­mit­tees ex­ist:

1.

Fin­ance Com­mit­tee (FC);

2.

Con­trol Com­mit­tee (CC);

3.

For­eign Af­fairs Com­mit­tee (FAC);

4.

Sci­ence, Edu­ca­tion and Cul­ture Com­mit­tee (SECC);

5.

So­cial Se­cur­ity and Health Com­mit­tee (SSHC);

6.

En­vir­on­ment, Spa­tial Plan­ning and En­ergy Com­mit­tee (ES­PEC);

7.

Se­cur­ity Policy Com­mit­tee (SPC);

8.

Trans­port and Tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions Com­mit­tee (TTC);

9.

Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs and Tax­a­tion Com­mit­tee (EATC);

10.

Polit­ic­al In­sti­tu­tions Com­mit­tee (PIC);

11.

Leg­al Af­fairs Com­mit­tee (LAC);

12.⁴

Im­munity Com­mit­tee (IC).

In ex­cep­tion­al cases, the Bur­eau may in­sti­tute spe­cial com­mit­tees. Pri­or to do­ing so, it shall con­sult the pres­id­ents of the stand­ing com­mit­tees whose area of com­pet­ence may be af­fected.

Un­less oth­er­wise provided in an act or or­din­ance of the Fed­er­al As­sembly, the pro­vi­sions on com­mit­tees set out in the Par­lia­ment Act and in these Stand­ing Or­ders ap­ply mu­tatis mutandis to the stand­ing and non-stand­ing del­eg­a­tions.

The Le­gis­lature Plan­ning Com­mit­tee is con­sti­tuted in the first ses­sion of the le­gis­lat­ive peri­od as the spe­cial com­mit­tee for the pre­lim­in­ary con­sid­er­a­tion of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil’s dis­patch on the le­gis­lature plan.

¹ The Im­munity Com­mit­tee is made up of nine mem­bers.

² A stand­ing sub­sti­tute shall be elec­ted for each Com­mit­tee mem­ber.

¹ Every com­mit­tee may es­tab­lish its own sub-com­mit­tee.⁷

² The com­mit­tee is­sues the sub-com­mit­tee with an as­sign­ment that spe­cifies its task and sets a dead­line for the sub­mis­sion of its re­ports.

³ The fin­ance and the con­trol com­mit­tee may es­tab­lish stand­ing sub-com­mit­tees to su­per­vise cer­tain areas on be­half of the com­mit­tee.

⁴ The For­eign Af­fairs Com­mit­tee shall es­tab­lish a stand­ing sub-com­mit­tee for European af­fairs. This com­mit­tee shall keep it­self in­formed about forth­com­ing leg­al de­vel­op­ments in the European Uni­on that are of im­port­ance to Switzer­land and re­port reg­u­larly to the Com­mit­tee there­on.⁸

¹ The fol­low­ing seats are al­loc­ated among the par­lia­ment­ary groups, in ana­log­ous ap­plic­a­tion of Art­icles 40 and 41 of the Fed­er­al Act of 17 Decem­ber 1976⁹ on Polit­ic­al Rights:

a.¹⁰

the total num­ber of seats on the stand­ing com­mit­tees un­der Art­icle 10 num­bers 1–11;

a^bis.¹¹

the seats on fur­ther in­di­vidu­al com­mit­tees;

b.

the seats ac­cor­ded to the Na­tion­al Coun­cil on a com­mit­tee of the United Fed­er­al As­sembly or on a joint com­mit­tee of both Coun­cils;

c.

the of­fices of pres­id­ent of the stand­ing com­mit­tees.

² ...¹²

³ In prin­ciple, a mem­ber of the Coun­cil may not sit on more than two of the com­mit­tees lis­ted un­der Art­icle 10.¹³

¹ The Pres­id­ent of the com­mit­tee:

a.

plans the work of the com­mit­tee;

b.

sets the agenda, sub­ject to con­trary de­cisions by the com­mit­tee;

c.

chairs the meet­ings of the com­mit­tee;

d.

rep­res­ents the com­mit­tee in its ex­tern­al deal­ings.

² If the Pres­id­ent is un­able to act, Art­icle 7 para­graph 2 and 3 ap­plies mu­tatis mutandis.

³ The Pres­id­ent shall par­ti­cip­ate in votes held by the com­mit­tee. In the event of a tie, he or she has the cast­ing vote.

¹ The term of of­fice of all com­mit­tee mem­bers is four years, sub­ject to con­trary pro­vi­sions con­tained in the Par­lia­ment Act or in an or­din­ance of the Fed­er­al As­sembly. It ends at the latest with the total re­new­al of the com­mit­tees in the first ses­sion of the new le­gis­lat­ive peri­od. Re-elec­tion is pos­sible.

² The term of of­fice for pres­id­ents and vice-pres­id­ents of the stand­ing com­mit­tees is two years. It ends at the latest with the total re­new­al of the com­mit­tees in the first ses­sion of the new le­gis­lat­ive peri­od. Im­me­di­ate re-elec­tion to the same of­fice is not pos­sible.

³ The term of of­fice of the mem­bers of a spe­cial com­mit­tee cor­res­ponds to the dur­a­tion of the com­mit­tee’s activ­ity.

⁴ If a seat on the com­mit­tee be­comes va­cant, the per­son elec­ted to fill the seat on the com­mit­tee serves out the re­mainder of the term of of­fice.

⁵ An ex­traordin­ary total re­new­al of the com­mit­tee for the re­mainder of the term of of­fice oc­curs if:

a.

the nu­mer­ic­al strength of a par­lia­ment­ary group al­ters to the ex­tent that it is over or un­der-rep­res­en­ted by more than one mem­ber on a stand­ing com­mit­tee lis­ted un­der Art­icle 10;

b.

a new par­lia­ment­ary group is formed.¹⁴

¹ A com­mit­tee mem­ber may be sub­sti­tuted for a single meet­ing of the com­mit­tee or sub-com­mit­tee. The re­place­ment mem­ber is nom­in­ated by the group.

² If a com­mit­tee mem­ber leaves the Coun­cil, the par­lia­ment­ary group shall nom­in­ate a re­place­ment, as long as the Bur­eau has not as­signed an­oth­er mem­ber to the po­s­i­tion.

³ In the cases un­der para­graphs 1 and 2, the par­lia­ment­ary group shall give no­tice of the name of the re­place­ment to the sec­ret­ary of the com­mit­tee without delay.

^3bis A mem­ber of a sub-com­mit­tee, oth­er than the Fin­ance Com­mit­tee, may only be sub­sti­tuted by an­oth­er mem­ber of the main com­mit­tee.¹⁵

⁴ Mem­bers of the Con­trol Com­mit­tee and mem­bers of a Par­lia­ment­ary In­vest­ig­a­tion Com­mit­tee, or their sub-com­mit­tees, may not be sub­sti­tuted by an­oth­er mem­ber.

¹ For every item of busi­ness, the com­mit­tee nom­in­ates one of its mem­bers to re­port to the Coun­cil and to present the pro­pos­als of the com­mit­tee (the rap­por­teur). It may also nom­in­ate ad­di­tion­al mem­bers of a dif­fer­ent lan­guage group to speak on the same sub­ject. The com­mit­tee pres­id­ent only acts as rap­por­teur in ex­cep­tion­al cases.

² If there are sev­er­al rap­por­teurs for the same item of busi­ness, they shall di­vide the work by top­ic. A re­pe­ti­tion of re­ports in a dif­fer­ent of­fi­cial lan­guage shall be avoided un­less the mat­ter is of great im­port­ance or com­plex. The in­tro­duct­ory speech is lim­ited to the main points of the mat­ter.

³ The com­mit­tee may de­liv­er a writ­ten re­port to the Coun­cil. A writ­ten re­port is re­quired if no oth­er of­fi­cial ex­plan­at­ory doc­u­ment ex­ists, or if the writ­ten pro­ced­ure (Art. 49) is re­quired to con­sider the item of busi­ness.

¹ The pres­id­ent or mem­bers se­lec­ted by the com­mit­tee shall in­form the me­dia in writ­ten or or­al form of the main res­ults of the com­mit­tee’s de­lib­er­a­tions.

² The in­form­a­tion provided gen­er­ally in­cludes the main de­cisions taken, the res­ults of any votes and the prin­cip­al ar­gu­ments presen­ted in the course of the de­lib­er­a­tions.

³ Per­sons present at the meet­ings shall not re­lease any in­form­a­tion be­fore the com­mit­tee has re­leased its of­fi­cial com­mu­nic­a­tion.

⁴ Any in­form­a­tion re­gard­ing views ex­pressed by per­sons present at the meet­ing or how they voted shall re­main con­fid­en­tial, un­less they de­cide to sub­mit a minor­ity pro­pos­al to the Coun­cil.

¹ Items of busi­ness un­der Art­icle 71 ParlA are sub­ject to pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion by the re­spons­ible com­mit­tees; ex­cep­tions there from are:

a.

pro­ced­ur­al re­quests by the mem­bers of the coun­cil and groups;

b.

can­did­ates for elec­tion;

c.

points of or­der;

d.

state­ments made by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil;

e.

oth­er items of busi­ness for con­sid­er­a­tion stip­u­lated by law or by this or­der.

² A pro­ced­ur­al re­quest may be sub­jec­ted to pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion if the re­spons­ible com­mit­tee or the Coun­cil so de­cides.

³...¹⁶

¹ New items of busi­ness are gen­er­ally al­loc­ated to a com­mit­tee for pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion at the start of every ses­sion.

² If, as a res­ult of a Coun­cil res­ol­u­tion, an item of busi­ness has to be al­loc­ated to a com­mit­tee, the al­loc­a­tion shall take place at the end of the ses­sion.

³ A Fed­er­al Coun­cil re­port may be al­loc­ated dir­ectly to the re­spons­ible com­mit­tee. The com­mit­tee may pro­pose that the Bur­eau in­clude the re­port in the ses­sion pro­gramme.

¹ A par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive or pro­ced­ur­al re­quest sub­mit­ted by a mem­ber of the Coun­cil or par­lia­ment­ary group shall be ex­amined for its form­al leg­al­ity by the Pres­id­ent on its sub­mis­sion.

² The eval­u­ation of form­al leg­al­ity of fur­ther items of busi­ness sub­mit­ted in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 71 ParlA is only con­duc­ted by the Pres­id­ent if a cor­res­pond­ing pro­pos­al is made. If the item of busi­ness is pending in the Fed­er­al As­sembly, the Pres­id­ent of the Coun­cil of States shall be con­sul­ted.

³ If an item of busi­ness is de­clared in­ad­miss­ible by the Pres­id­ent, the au­thor may ap­peal to the Bur­eau. The de­cision of the Bur­eau is fi­nal.

¹ Le­gis­lat­ive bills pro­duced by a com­mit­tee or pro­pos­als sub­mit­ted by the com­mit­tee re­spons­ible for the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion of a le­gis­lat­ive bill put for­ward by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil must be sent to mem­bers of the Coun­cil at least four­teen days be­fore they are due to come be­fore the Coun­cil; this rule does not ap­ply to le­gis­lat­ive bills ex­amined by both cham­bers in the same ses­sion (Art. 85ParlA).

² If the doc­u­ments are not sub­mit­ted in time, the Bur­eau shall con­sider re­mov­ing the item of busi­ness from the ses­sion pro­gramme.

A mem­ber of the Coun­cil or a group may sub­mit a par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive or a pro­ced­ur­al re­quest in writ­ing dur­ing the Coun­cil sit­ting.

¹ The word­ing of a par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive and of a pro­ced­ur­al re­quest may not con­tain a state­ment of reas­ons.

² A state­ment of reas­ons must be ad­ded to a par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive. It is op­tion­al for a mo­tion, a pos­tu­late or an in­ter­pel­la­tion.

If the ad­dress­ee of a pro­ced­ur­al re­quest is un­able to re­spond to the re­quest with­in the spe­cified peri­od, he or she shall in­form the Bur­eau and the au­thor stat­ing a reas­on for the delay.

¹ Dur­ing every or­din­ary ses­sion at least eight hours shall be giv­en over to the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion of par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ives and the con­sid­er­a­tion of pro­ced­ur­al re­quests (ex­clud­ing pro­ced­ur­al re­quests de­clared ur­gent). If in ex­cep­tion­al cases it is not pos­sible to al­lot eight hours to these mat­ters over the course of a ses­sion, the time ded­ic­ated to such mat­ters shall be ex­ten­ded in the next ses­sion.²⁰

² Pro­ced­ur­al re­quests sub­mit­ted by in­di­vidu­al mem­bers of the Coun­cil and groups that re­late to the same or a sim­il­ar mat­ter shall be con­sidered in the or­der in which they were sub­mit­ted. Pro­ced­ur­al re­quests that the Fed­er­al Coun­cil has re­ques­ted be ad­op­ted and which are op­posed from the floor of the Coun­cil shall be con­sidered be­fore pro­ced­ur­al re­quests that the Fed­er­al Coun­cil has re­ques­ted be re­jec­ted.²¹

³ A par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive that has been sup­por­ted in com­mit­tee by less than one fifth of its mem­bers shall be con­sidered in the Coun­cil un­der the writ­ten pro­ced­ure (Art. 49).

⁴ An in­ter­pel­lant may de­clare his or her sat­is­fac­tion with the Fed­er­al Coun­cil’s re­sponse, even if the Coun­cil re­fuses to de­bate the in­ter­pel­la­tion.

¹ Mo­tions ad­op­ted in the Coun­cil of States and mo­tions or pos­tu­lates sub­mit­ted by a com­mit­tee must be con­sidered no later than in the second or­din­ary ses­sion fol­low­ing their ad­op­tion or the pub­lic­a­tion of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil’s state­ment.

² ...²³

¹ After a par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive sub­mit­ted by a mem­ber of the coun­cil or a group has been al­loc­ated to the com­mit­tee for pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion, the com­mit­tee shall de­cide with­in a year wheth­er it in­tends to en­dorse the ini­ti­at­ive or pro­pose that the Coun­cil should not en­dorse it.

² If the com­mit­tee pro­poses that the Coun­cil should en­dorse a par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive, the Coun­cil shall con­sider the ini­ti­at­ive at the latest in the second or­din­ary ses­sion fol­low­ing sub­mis­sion of the com­mit­tee’s pro­pos­al.

³ If the Coun­cil of States en­dorses a par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive, the Coun­cil shall con­sider the ini­ti­at­ive no later than in the second or­din­ary ses­sion fol­low­ing the de­cision of the Coun­cil of States.

⁴ ...²⁵

¹ A par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive or pro­ced­ur­al re­quest may be signed by more than one coun­cil mem­ber. The mem­ber sign­ing first is con­sidered the au­thor.

^1bis ...²⁶

² The au­thor may with­draw the ini­ti­at­ive or re­quest without ap­prov­al of the co-sig­nat­or­ies.

¹ An in­ter­pel­la­tion or a ques­tion may be de­clared ur­gent.

² The party re­spons­ible for the de­clar­a­tion of ur­gency is:

a.

in the case of an in­ter­pel­la­tion, the Bur­eau, un­less the Coun­cil de­cides oth­er­wise;

b.

in the case of a ques­tion, the Pres­id­ent; if the Pres­id­ent is of the view that the ques­tion is not ur­gent, the Bur­eau makes the fi­nal de­cision.²⁷

³ An ur­gent in­ter­pel­la­tion or an ur­gent ques­tion must be sub­mit­ted at the latest by the be­gin­ning of the third sit­ting of a three-week ses­sion. It shall be answered by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil in the same ses­sion.²⁸

⁴ The Bur­eau may with the con­sent of its au­thor con­vert an ur­gent in­ter­pel­la­tion in­to an ur­gent ques­tion.²⁹

¹ In a three-week ses­sion, a de­bate on cur­rent is­sues is held if 75 Coun­cil mem­bers so re­quest by the start of the third sit­ting of the ses­sion.

² The re­quest for a de­bate on cur­rent is­sues shall list the ur­gent in­ter­pel­la­tions that must be dis­cussed.

¹ In or­der to deal with top­ic­al ques­tions, the second and the third weeks of each ses­sion shall open with a ques­tion time; it shall last for no more than 90 minutes.

² The ques­tions must be sub­mit­ted in writ­ing, in a con­cise form and without stat­ing the reas­ons for their ask­ing be­fore the end of the morn­ing sit­ting on the Wed­nes­day pri­or to the ques­tion time.³¹

³ A writ­ten note of the ques­tions shall be dis­trib­uted among the mem­bers of the Coun­cil be­fore the start of the sit­ting; the ques­tions are not read out.

⁴ If the mem­ber ask­ing the ques­tion is present, the rep­res­ent­at­ive of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall provide a brief an­swer. The mem­ber ask­ing the ques­tion may ask a sup­ple­ment­ary ques­tion re­lated to the same mat­ter.

^4bis ...³²

⁵ Identic­al ques­tions or ques­tions re­lat­ing to the same mat­ter shall be answered to­geth­er.

⁶ Where there is in­suf­fi­cient time to an­swer a ques­tion ad­equately, or in the case of ques­tions and sup­ple­ment­ary ques­tions that re­quire ad­di­tion­al cla­ri­fic­a­tion, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall re­spond in writ­ing in ac­cord­ance with the rules on ur­gent ques­tions.

¹ At the pro­pos­al of the ma­jor­ity of a com­mit­tee, the Coun­cil may make a state­ment on im­port­ant events or on for­eign or do­mest­ic policy mat­ters.

² The Coun­cil may de­cide to hold a dis­cus­sion on the draft of a state­ment. It may ap­prove or re­ject the draft or refer it back to the com­mit­tee.

³ The draft of a state­ment shall be aban­doned if it is not con­sidered in the on­go­ing or sub­sequent ses­sion.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may make a state­ment to the Coun­cil on im­port­ant events or on for­eign or do­mest­ic policy mat­ters.

² At the pro­pos­al of a mem­ber, the Coun­cil may de­cide to hold a dis­cus­sion on the state­ment.

¹ When con­sid­er­ing the le­gis­lature plan, the Coun­cil shall de­cide only on the pro­pos­als and minor­ity pro­pos­als of the com­mit­tee re­spons­ible for the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion.

² Oth­er en­titled per­sons shall sub­mit their pro­pos­als to the com­mit­tee 24 hours at the latest be­fore it be­gins to con­sider the Fed­er­al De­cree in de­tail.

³ No­tice of the dead­line for sub­mit­ting pro­pos­als shall be giv­en to the groups and the mem­bers of the Coun­cil at least three weeks in ad­vance.

⁴ ...³⁵

¹ An or­gan­ised de­bate in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 47 shall be held in or­der to con­sider the le­gis­lature plan (gen­er­al in­tro­duct­ory state­ments from the rep­res­ent­at­ives of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the par­lia­ment­ary groups and de­tailed con­sid­er­a­tion of the com­mit­tee pro­pos­als).³⁶

² The time lim­it for the de­bate and the al­loc­a­tion of speak­ing rights shall be de­cided be­fore the com­mit­tee re­spons­ible for the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion be­gins to con­sider the Fed­er­al De­cree.

³ Each group shall have a min­im­um of ten minutes speak­ing time.

The Im­munity Com­mit­tee is re­spons­ible for deal­ing with re­quests to lift the im­munity of a Coun­cil mem­ber, a mem­ber of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, the Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor or fed­er­al judges, or sim­il­ar re­quests.

¹ The Coun­cil nor­mally con­venes as fol­lows:

a.

on the same days as the Coun­cil of States in the four or­din­ary three-week ses­sions of the Fed­er­al As­sembly;

b.

at least once every year for a spe­cial ses­sion of no more than one week provided suf­fi­cient items of busi­ness are ready for con­sid­er­a­tion.

² Ex­traordin­ary ses­sions (Art. 2 ParlA) are re­served.

¹ The Coun­cil nor­mally sits as fol­lows:

a.

Monday: from 2.30 p.m. to 7.00 p.m.;

b.

Tues­day: from 8.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.; Tues­day af­ter­noon is re­served for group sit­tings;

c.

Wed­nes­day: from 8.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. and from 3.00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m.;

d.

Thursday: from 8.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. and in the fi­nal week of a ses­sion from 3.00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m.;

e.

On the Fri­day of the fi­nal week of a ses­sion: from 8.00 a.m. to 11.00 p.m..

² Even­ing sit­tings (from 7.00 p.m. to 10.00 p.m.) are ar­ranged if the work­load and the ur­gency of the busi­ness so re­quires.

¹ No­tice is giv­en of the agenda as fol­lows:

a.

for the first sit­ting of a ses­sion: when the ses­sion pro­gramme is sent out;

b.

for oth­er sit­tings: at the end of the pre­ced­ing sit­ting.

² The agenda lists all items of busi­ness. Pe­ti­tions and pro­ced­ur­al re­quests frommem­bers of the Coun­cil and from groups may be lis­ted un­der a col­lect­ive head­ing.

³ The Pres­id­ent may give ad­vance no­tice of the time of elec­tions and votes.

⁴ He or she may add items to the agenda dur­ing the sit­ting, in par­tic­u­lar in or­der to deal with dif­fer­ences, de­ferred items of busi­ness and pro­ced­ur­al re­quests.

¹ The Clerk to the Coun­cil shall take the minutes of each sit­ting in the lan­guage of the Pres­id­ent. The minutes shall state:

a.

the items of busi­ness that have been dis­cussed and de­ferred;

b.⁴⁰

...

c.

the pro­pos­als made;

d.

the res­ult of the votes and elec­tions;

e.⁴¹

the mem­bers of the Coun­cil who have been ex­cused; if a mem­ber of the Coun­cil is ex­cused by vir­tue of Art­icle 57 para­graph 4 let­ter e, this reas­on must be stated;

f.

the no­tices giv­en by the Pres­id­ent.

² The Pres­id­ent shall ap­prove the minutes.

¹ No­tices and pro­pos­als made by the Pres­id­ent, to­geth­er with verbal points of or­der are trans­lated in­to a second of­fi­cial lan­guage by the in­ter­pret­er.

² Coun­cil pro­ceed­ings are sim­ul­tan­eously trans­lated in­to all three of­fi­cial lan­guages.

The Pres­id­ent shall veri­fy wheth­er the Coun­cil is quor­ate:

a.

be­fore elec­tions, votes on en­tire bills and fi­nal votes as well as votes on pro­vi­sions that re­quire the ap­prov­al of a ma­jor­ity of the mem­bers of the Coun­cil in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 159 para­graph 3 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion⁴² in or­der to be ac­cep­ted;

b.

at the pro­pos­al of a mem­ber of the Coun­cil.

¹ The Pres­id­ent shall call per­sons at­tend­ing a sit­ting to or­der who:

a.

make in­sult­ing or ir­rel­ev­ant re­marks, ex­ceed their speak­ing time or in­fringe oth­er pro­ced­ur­al rules;

b.

by their con­duct dis­rupt Coun­cil pro­ceed­ings.

² If the call to or­der is dis­reg­arded, the Pres­id­ent may or­der that dis­cip­lin­ary meas­ures be taken in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 13 para­graph 1 ParlA.

³ The Coun­cil shall de­cide without dis­cus­sion on ob­jec­tions made by the per­son con­cerned.

¹ The mem­bers of the Coun­cil shall enter their names on the roll on each day of the ses­sion.

² They shall no­ti­fy the Sec­ret­ary Gen­er­al of the Fed­er­al As­sembly, if pos­sible be­fore the sit­ting, if they are un­able to at­tend.

¹ In the Coun­cil, no one may speak un­less gran­ted the right to do so by the Pres­id­ent.

² Any­one who wishes to speak must sub­mit a writ­ten re­quest to do so to the Pres­id­ent.

³ The Pres­id­ent nor­mally grants the right to speak in the or­der of the re­quests. He or she may however group speak­ers ac­cord­ing to sub­ject mat­ter or in or­der to fa­cil­it­ate an ap­pro­pri­ate ex­change of lan­guages or points of view.

⁴ The group spokes­per­sons and the per­sons sub­mit­ting form­al pro­pos­als speak be­fore the oth­er mem­bers.

⁵ No one may speak on the same mat­ter more than twice.

⁶ The com­mit­tee rap­por­teurs and the rep­res­ent­at­ive of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil are al­lowed to speak when they re­quest to do so.

¹ At the end of a speech, any mem­ber of the Coun­cil and the rep­res­ent­at­ive of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may ask the speak­er a brief and pre­cise ques­tion on a spe­cif­ic point re­lat­ing to what he or she has said; they are not per­mit­ted to state or jus­ti­fy their point of view.

² The in­cid­ent­al ques­tion may only be asked if the speak­er con­sents in re­sponse to a cor­res­pond­ing re­quest made by the Pres­id­ent.

³ The speak­er shall provide an im­me­di­ate and brief re­sponse to the in­cid­ent­al ques­tion.

¹Any mem­ber of the Coun­cil may make a brief per­son­al state­ment in or­der to re­spond to a com­ment re­lat­ing to his or her per­son or in or­der to rec­ti­fy a state­ment that he or she has made.

² A mem­ber who wishes to make a per­son­al state­ment may speak im­me­di­ately.

³ The groups may give reas­ons for their vot­ing in­ten­tions in a brief state­ment be­fore the fi­nal vote.

¹ In the in­tro­duct­ory de­bate the speak­ing times are as fol­lows:

a.

for the com­mit­tee rap­por­teurs: 20 minutes in total;

b.

for the rep­res­ent­at­ive of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil: 20 minutes;

c.

for the group spokes­per­sons: ten minutes each;

d.

for the oth­er speak­ers: five minutes.

² In the oth­er de­bates the speak­ing time amounts to five minutes for group spokes­per­sons, per­sons sub­mit­ting form­al pro­pos­als, au­thors of par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ives and pro­ced­ur­al re­quests and in­di­vidu­al speak­ers and the rep­res­ent­at­ive of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, there is no lim­it on speak­ing time.

³ By way of ex­cep­tion, the Pres­id­ent may ex­tend the speak­ing times spe­cified in para­graph 1. In re­sponse to a cor­res­pond­ing pro­pos­al, the Coun­cil may ex­tend the speak­ing times spe­cified in para­graph 2.

¹ The Coun­cil may dis­pense with an in­tro­duct­ory de­bate, un­less a pro­pos­al is sub­mit­ted not to ap­prove in­tro­duc­tion.

² It may de­cide to con­sider an item of busi­ness art­icle by art­icle, in sec­tions or in its en­tirety.

¹ Items of busi­ness shall be con­sidered in one of the fol­low­ing forms:

I:

Open de­bate

II:

Or­gan­ised de­bate

IIIa:⁴³

Group de­bate

IIIb:⁴⁴

Time lim­ited group de­bate

IV:

Short de­bate

V:

Writ­ten pro­ced­ure

² When de­cid­ing on the ses­sion pro­gramme, the Of­fice shall also de­cide on the form in which items of busi­ness should be con­sidered.

³ Ir­re­spect­ive of the form of con­sid­er­a­tion, the com­mit­tee rap­por­teur and the rep­res­ent­at­ive of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­quest the right to speak on an item of busi­ness.

⁴ Ir­re­spect­ive of the form of con­sid­er­a­tion, the au­thor of a par­lia­ment­ary ini­ti­at­ive, a mo­tion or a pos­tu­late may provide a verbal state­ment of reas­ons for the same. The first per­son to re­quest its re­jec­tion shall also be giv­en the right to speak. An in­ter­pel­lant shall be giv­en the right to speak when the de­bate has been con­cluded.⁴⁵

⁵ Ir­re­spect­ive of the form of con­sid­er­a­tion, dur­ing the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion of a can­ton­al ini­ti­at­ive, a Coun­cil mem­ber from the can­ton that is au­thor of the ini­ti­at­ive may provide a verbal state­ment of reas­ons for the same provided a ma­jor­ity of the can­ton's mem­bers of par­lia­ment ap­point that Coun­cil mem­ber to do so.⁴⁶

¹ An or­gan­ised de­bate may in par­tic­u­lar be held:

a.

for the in­tro­duct­ory de­bate;

b.

for con­sid­er­a­tion of an in­ter­pel­la­tion or a re­port.

² The Bur­eau shall spe­cify an over­all speak­ing time for the groups and al­loc­ate each group a share of this time based on their size in the Coun­cil.⁴⁷

³ ...⁴⁸

⁴ The groups shall give no­tice in good time of how the speak­ing time avail­able to them will be al­loc­ated among the group mem­bers.

⁵ The mem­bers of the Coun­cil that do not be­long to a group shall re­ceive an ap­pro­pri­ate al­loc­a­tion of the over­all speak­ing time.

¹ In a nor­mal group de­bate, the right to speak shall be lim­ited to group spokes­per­sons and mem­bers pro­pos­ing amend­ments. In a time lim­ited group de­bate, speak­ing times in the in­tro­duct­ory de­bate in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 44 shall be halved for all speak­ers oth­er than those who fall with­in Art­icle 44 para­graph 1 let­ter d.⁵⁰

² In the short de­bate, only the rap­por­teurs for the com­mit­tee minor­it­ies shall have the right to speak.

^2bis In a short de­bate on mo­tions and pos­tu­lates sub­mit­ted by mem­bers of the Coun­cil or groups, the first per­son to pro­pose the re­jec­tion of the pro­ced­ur­al re­quest shall be giv­en the right to speak.⁵¹

³ Art­icle 46 para­graphs 3 and 4 are re­served in every case.

¹ In the writ­ten pro­ced­ure, there is no right to re­quest the right to speak.

² Art­icle 46 para­graphs 3 and 4 are re­served in every case.

¹ A pro­posed amend­ment must be sub­mit­ted to the Pres­id­ent in writ­ing and nor­mally be­fore the item of busi­ness con­cerned is con­sidered.

² In the case of lengthy and com­plex de­lib­er­a­tions, the Pres­id­ent may set a time lim­it for sub­mit­ting pro­posed amend­ments.

³ He or she shall ex­am­ine the pro­posed amend­ments on their fil­ing to con­firm that they ful­fil the form­al re­quire­ments.

⁴ A pro­posed amend­ment shall be sub­ject to a pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion by the com­mit­tee re­spons­ible if the com­mit­tee so re­quests or the Coun­cil so de­cides.

⁵ Pro­posed amend­ments to items of busi­ness that will be con­sidered in de­bate forms I–III may be jus­ti­fied verbally. Pro­posed amend­ments to items of busi­ness con­sidered in de­bate forms IV and V may only be jus­ti­fied in writ­ing. Art­icle 46 para­graphs 3 and 4 is re­served.⁵²

⁶ If two or more identic­al pro­pos­als re­lat­ing to items of busi­ness that will be con­sidered in de­bate forms I–III, then the mem­ber who sub­mit­ted the first pro­pos­al shall be giv­en the right to speak. A mem­ber who sub­mit­ted a pro­pos­al sub­sequently may make a brief ad­di­tion­al de­clar­a­tion.

¹ The Coun­cil shall deal with a point of or­der im­me­di­ately.

² It shall de­cide without dis­cus­sion on any pro­pos­al for re­con­sid­er­a­tion, after hear­ing a brief state­ment of reas­ons for the pro­pos­al and any counter-pro­pos­al.

³ If the Coun­cil votes in fa­vour of the pro­pos­al for re­con­sid­er­a­tion, the art­icle or sec­tion shall be con­sidered again.

¹ The Pres­id­ent shall close the de­bate if there are no fur­ther re­quests to speak or the time lim­it for the de­bate (Art. 47) has ex­pired.

² He or she may pro­pose that the list of speak­ers be closed, after the group rep­res­ent­at­ives have spoken and reas­ons have been giv­en for all pro­posed amend­ments.

³ After every­one on the list of speak­ers has spoken, the rep­res­ent­at­ive of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and then the com­mit­tee rap­por­teurs may make a brief re­sponse to the speeches giv­en.

The draft of an amend­ment to these Stand­ing Or­ders shall be con­sidered on a second oc­ca­sion, un­less the amend­ment is minor. Fol­low­ing its re­view by the Draft­ing Com­mit­tee, a fi­nal vote shall be held.

¹ An item of busi­ness that has been sub­stan­tially amended due to pro­pos­als from the floor of the Coun­cil shall be re­turned for ed­it­or­i­al re­vi­sion to the com­mit­tee re­spons­ible for the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion, if that com­mit­tee so re­quests or if the Coun­cil so de­cides.

² The re­vised text shall be sub­mit­ted to the Coun­cil for ap­prov­al as a whole.

Be­fore the vote, the Pres­id­ent shall provide a brief sum­mary of the pro­posed amend­ments made and sub­mit pro­pos­als to the Coun­cil on the ques­tion and on the or­der of vot­ing in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 78 and 79 ParlA.

¹ The vote is nor­mally held us­ing the elec­tron­ic vot­ing sys­tem.

² No mem­ber of the Coun­cil is ob­liged to vote.

³ Vot­ing by proxy is not per­mit­ted.

⁴ The rap­por­teurs vote from their desks, and the oth­er mem­bers of the Coun­cil from their seats.

¹ The elec­tron­ic vot­ing sys­tem counts and stores data on the votes cast at each vote.

² The Pres­id­ent an­nounces the res­ult of the vote.

³ The res­ult of the vote is pub­lished in the form of a list of names.⁵³

⁴ On the list of names, an in­dic­a­tion is giv­en for each mem­ber of the Coun­cil if he or she:

a.

voted yes;

b.

voted no;

c.

ab­stained;

d.

did not par­ti­cip­ate in the vote; or

e.⁵⁴

is ex­cused; a per­son is ex­cused when he or she has giv­en no­tice of his or her ab­sence for the en­tire sit­ting by the start of the sit­ting at the latest due to be­ing on busi­ness for the stand­ing del­eg­a­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 60 ParlA or due to the death of a close re­l­at­ive, ma­ter­nity or pa­tern­ity leave, ac­ci­dent or ill­ness.⁵⁵

⁵ ...⁵⁶

If the elec­tron­ic vot­ing equip­ment is out of or­der, vot­ing takes place by roll call.

¹ ...⁶⁰

² In a vote by call­ing the roll, the mem­bers of the Coun­cil re­spond from their seats in al­pha­bet­ic­al or­der of their names to ques­tion put to the vote by the Pres­id­ent with a «Yes», «No» or «Ab­stain».

³ After each re­sponse the Sec­ret­ary Gen­er­al in­forms the Fed­er­al As­sembly of the pro­vi­sion­al totals of votes.

⁴ The only vote that counts is that cast im­me­di­ately after the mem­ber's name is read out counts.

¹ The fol­low­ing per­sons are al­lowed ac­cess to the Cham­ber and its ante­rooms (the Lobby and Ante­cham­ber) dur­ing the ses­sions:

a.

mem­bers of the Fed­er­al As­sembly;

b.

mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor;

c.

mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court rep­res­ent­ing the fed­er­al courts on items of busi­ness in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 162 para­graph 2 ParlA;

d.

Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices staff, as their du­ties re­quire;

e.

staff ac­com­pa­ny­ing mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, the Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor or mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Su­preme Court, as their du­ties re­quire;

f.

pho­to­graph­ers and cam­era crew bear­ing a pass is­sued by Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices.

² Dur­ing ses­sions, ac­cred­ited journ­al­ists and the per­sons hold­ing an entry pass in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 69 ParlA also have ac­cess.

³ The gal­lery is open to the pub­lic, while the press gal­lery is open to ac­cred­ited journ­al­ists.

⁴ In the case of sit­tings in cam­era (Art. 4 para. 2 and 3 ParlA), only the per­sons spe­cified in para­graph 1 let­ters a–d have ac­cess to the Cham­ber and to its ante­cham­bers. The gal­ler­ies are cleared.

⁵ The Pres­id­ent may is­sue fur­ther reg­u­la­tions on ac­cess to the Cham­ber, its ante­cham­bers and the gal­ler­ies; in par­tic­u­lar he or she may im­pose time lim­its on the right to vis­it the gal­lery when there are large num­bers of vis­it­ors.

⁶ The Pres­id­ent may is­sue reg­u­la­tions on the use of the rooms while the Coun­cil is not in ses­sion.

¹ Vis­it­ors to the gal­ler­ies shall re­main quiet. They shall in par­tic­u­lar re­frain from any aud­ible ex­pres­sion of ap­prov­al or dis­ap­prov­al. Pic­ture or sound re­cord­ings are only per­mit­ted with au­thor­isa­tion of the Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices.

² The Pres­id­ent shall or­der un­au­thor­ised per­sons to be re­moved from the Cham­ber.

³ He or she shall or­der au­thor­ised per­sons who are not mem­bers of the Coun­cil to be re­moved from the Cham­ber or vis­it­ors to be re­moved from the gal­lery if, hav­ing been warned, they con­tin­ue to be­have in­ap­pro­pri­ately or to cause a dis­turb­ance.

⁴ The Pres­id­ent shall sus­pend the pro­ceed­ings if or­der in the Cham­ber or in the gal­ler­ies can­not be re­stored im­me­di­ately.

The Stand­ing Or­ders of the Na­tion­al Coun­cil of 22 June 1990⁶¹ are re­pealed.

¹ Un­til Art­icle 189 para­graph 1 let­ter f of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion in its ver­sion of 12 March 2000⁶² comes in­to force, the Coun­cil at the pro­pos­al of the Pro­vi­sion­al Of­fice shall rule on ap­peals against de­cisions of a can­ton­al gov­ern­ment on the valid­ity of an elec­tion to the Na­tion­al Coun­cil.

² The Coun­cil shall rule:

a.

on ap­peals against gen­er­al elec­tions at the pro­pos­al of the Pro­vi­sion­al Of­fice be­fore the Coun­cil has been de­clared to be con­sti­tuted;

b.

on ap­peals against a sup­ple­ment­ary elec­tion at the pro­pos­al of the of­fices be­fore the new mem­ber of the Coun­cil is sworn in.

³ A mem­ber of the Coun­cil whose elec­tion is con­tested shall stand down both from the pro­vi­sion­al of­fice and from the Coun­cil while the ap­peal against his elec­tion is be­ing heard.

These Stand­ing Or­ders come in­to force to­geth­er with the Par­lia­ment Act on 1 Decem­ber 2003.