Federal Act
on the Federal Assembly
(Parliament Act, ParlA)

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.

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

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

³ One 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 coun­cils;

c.

elec­tions;

d.

de­clar­a­tions by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil or identic­al drafts sub­mit­ted in both coun­cils for de­clar­a­tions by the Na­tion­al Coun­cil and des Coun­cil of States.⁴

^3bis The ex­traordin­ary ses­sion shall be held im­me­di­ately if:

a.

the Fed­er­al Coun­cil has is­sued or amended an or­din­ance based on Art­icle 184 para­graph 3 or 185 para­graph 3 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion or on a stat­utory au­thor­isa­tion to deal with a crisis in ac­cord­ance with An­nex 2;

b.

the draft for an or­din­ance or for a simple fed­er­al de­cree un­der Art­icle 173 para­graph 1 let­ter c of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion or for an ur­gent fed­er­al act un­der Art­icle 165 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion is pending;

c.

the post­pone­ment or early ter­min­a­tion of the ses­sion has been de­cided in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 33a.⁵

⁴ An or­din­ary or an ex­traordin­ary ses­sion is nor­mally held in both coun­cils in the same cal­en­dar week.⁶

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

² The 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.

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

⁴ The 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.”

⁵ The 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.”

¹ The 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.

² For 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.

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

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

¹ The 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.

² The 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.

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

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

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

⁴ If 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.⁷

¹ The 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.

² An 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.⁸

³ In 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.

⁴ If 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.

⁵ As 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.

⁶ The 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 1988⁹.

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

¹ If events arise that could pre­vent sev­er­al as­sembly mem­bers from phys­ic­ally at­tend­ing coun­cil meet­ings, a coun­cil may per­mit in­di­vidu­al as­sembly mem­bers to at­tend vir­tu­ally, provided the quor­um is reached in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 159 para­graph 1 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion.

² An as­sembly mem­ber may at­tend coun­cil meet­ings vir­tu­ally only if their phys­ic­al at­tend­ance is pre­ven­ted by an of­fi­cial or­der re­lat­ing to the events set out in para­graph 1 or due to force ma­jeure. The as­sembly mem­ber shall in­form the Coun­cil Pres­id­ent in good time.

³ As­sembly mem­bers who at­tend vir­tu­ally shall have the same rights as those who at­tend phys­ic­ally, with the ex­cep­tion that they are not per­mit­ted to par­ti­cip­ate in elec­tions and meet­ings in cam­era (in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 4 para­graph 2).

⁴ Votes shall not be held again if as­sembly mem­bers are un­able to cast their votes on tech­nic­al grounds.

⁵ The coun­cil and the pub­lic shall be in­formed as to which as­sembly mem­bers have at­ten­ded meet­ings vir­tu­ally.

¹ On 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.¹²

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

b.¹³

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.

^1bis In 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.¹⁴

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

³ As­sembly 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.

⁴ Pro­fes­sion­al secrecy in terms of the Swiss Crim­in­al Code¹⁵ is re­served.

¹ In 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.

² In 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.

¹ Where 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.

² Where 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.

³ The 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.¹⁷

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.

¹ In 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.

² In 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.

¹ Crim­in­al 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 coun­cils. The reg­u­la­tions of each coun­cil shall des­ig­nate the com­pet­ent com­mit­tee.

² If 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.

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

^3bis The 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.¹⁹

⁴ If 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.²⁰

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

² If 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.

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

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

⁵ The de­cision of the com­mit­tees is fi­nal.

⁶ Once 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 coun­cils in a writ­ten com­mu­nic­a­tion.

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

¹ The 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 Code²² 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.

² Para­graph 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.

³ As 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 coun­cils in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 17, un­less pro­ceed­ings have already been dropped.²³

⁴ Any ar­rest made without this au­thor­isa­tion is un­law­ful.²⁴

¹ The 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.

² Au­thor­isa­tion to sus­pend postal and tele­com­mu­nic­a­tions secrecy may only be gran­ted if the rel­ev­ant au­thor­ity has ap­proved the or­der for sur­veil­lance to be car­ried out.²⁵

¹ Crim­in­al 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.²⁶

² The 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.²⁷

³ If 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.²⁸

⁴ The 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.

¹ The fin­an­cial li­ab­il­ity of an as­sembly mem­ber for his or her of­fi­cial activ­it­ies is gov­erned by the Gov­ern­ment Li­ab­il­ity Act of 14 March 1958³⁰.

² The 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.

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

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

² It 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.

³ Pri­or 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. Draft or­din­ances in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 151 para­graph 2^bis shall in any case be sub­mit­ted to the rel­ev­ant com­mit­tees for con­sulta­tion.³¹

⁴ Pro­vi­sions 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.

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

² It 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^bisof the Gov­ern­ment and Ad­min­is­tra­tion Or­gan­isa­tion Act of 21 March 1997³².³³

³ If 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.³⁴

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

¹ The Fed­er­al As­sembly shall de­cide on ex­pendit­ures and in­vest­ments in the budget and its sup­ple­ments.³⁵ 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.

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

³ It 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.³⁶

¹ The 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.³⁷

² It shall ex­er­cise su­per­vis­ory con­trol over the fin­an­cial budget in the con­text of Art­icle 8 of the Fed­er­al Audit­ing Act of 28 June 1967³⁸.

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

a.

leg­al­ity;

b.

reg­u­lar­ity;

c.

ex­pedi­ency;

d.

ef­fect­ive­ness;

e.

eco­nom­ic ef­fi­ciency.

⁴ Su­per­vis­ory 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.³⁹

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.

¹ The 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 1997⁴⁰.⁴¹

^1bis It 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.⁴²

² Gen­er­al 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.

³ Gen­er­al 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.

⁴ If 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.

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

² In­di­vidu­al 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.

¹ The Fed­er­al As­sembly meets in Bern.

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

³ If it is not pos­sible to con­vene in Bern, the Con­fer­ence for Co­ordin­a­tion may de­cide that the Fed­er­al As­sembly shall meet at a dif­fer­ent loc­a­tion.⁴³

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

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

³ The 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.

¹ The de­cision of one Coun­cil to post­pone or pre­ma­turely end the ses­sion re­quires the con­sent of the oth­er Coun­cil.

² If it is not pos­sible to con­vene in per­son, the Con­fer­ence for Co­ordin­a­tion may de­cide to post­pone or ter­min­ate the ses­sion early.

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

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

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

³ The 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.

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

² The Con­fer­ence for Co­ordin­a­tion has the fol­low­ing du­ties:

a.⁴⁵

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.⁴⁶

…

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.

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

⁴ The 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 ...⁴⁷

¹ The 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.

² The Ad­min­is­tra­tion Del­eg­a­tion is re­spons­ible for the over­all man­age­ment of the ad­min­is­tra­tion of Par­lia­ment. With­in the scope of its re­spons­ib­il­it­ies for the draft budget of the Fed­er­al As­sembly, it shall en­sure in par­tic­u­lar that the Fed­er­al As­sembly and its bod­ies have the ne­ces­sary re­sources and in­fra­struc­ture at their dis­pos­al. It may is­sue dir­ect­ives on the al­loc­a­tion of hu­man and fin­an­cial re­sources.⁴⁸

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

a.

judges of the fed­er­al courts;

b.

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

c.

the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land and the depu­ties of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land;

d.⁵⁰

the Fed­er­al Data Pro­tec­tion and In­form­a­tion Com­mis­sion­er (the Com­mis­sion­er).⁵¹

² It is­sues pub­lic in­vit­a­tions for ap­plic­a­tions for va­cant po­s­i­tions as fed­er­al judges, the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land, the depu­ties of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land and the Com­mis­sion­er.⁵² If the law per­mits part-time po­s­i­tions, the level of oc­cu­pa­tion is stated in the in­vit­a­tion to ap­ply.⁵³

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

⁴ It de­term­ines the de­tails of the em­ploy­ment con­tracts of the judges, the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land, or the depu­ties of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land.⁵⁴

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

⁶ The 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, the depu­ties of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al of Switzer­land, and the Com­mis­sion­er.⁵⁵

¹ Un­less 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.

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

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

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

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

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

² Un­less oth­er­wise provided by this Act, the chair­per­sons of joint com­mit­tees of both coun­cils 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.

^2bis The Conference for Coordination ensures that die Presidents of the Control Committees of both councils do not belong to the same parliamentary group.⁵⁶

³ The 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 coun­cil. Wherever pos­sible, ap­pro­pri­ate ac­count should be taken of the of­fi­cial lan­guages and re­gions of the coun­try.

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

¹ In 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.⁵⁷

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.

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

¹ In 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.

² The 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.

¹ The meet­ings of the com­mit­tees are gen­er­ally held in ac­cord­ance with an an­nu­al meet­ing sched­ule.

² The pres­id­ent may can­cel meet­ings or sched­ule ad­di­tion­al meet­ings. De­cisions of the com­mit­tee to the con­trary re­main re­served.

³ Between or­din­ary meet­ings, the com­mit­tee shall be con­vened on an un­sched­uled meet­ing day if the ma­jor­ity of com­mit­tee mem­bers have agreed to a cor­res­pond­ing re­quest by cir­cu­lar res­ol­u­tion, in which an item of busi­ness is spe­cified, the hand­ling of which is ur­gent.

¹ The com­mit­tees may hold their meet­ings vir­tu­ally if:

a.

an in-per­son meet­ing is not pos­sible; or

b.

ur­gent de­cisions or de­cisions on how to pro­ceed are to be taken.

² A meet­ing may only be held vir­tu­ally if the pres­id­ent and the ma­jor­ity of the com­mit­tee mem­bers have giv­en their con­sent by cir­cu­lar res­ol­u­tion.

³ The fol­low­ing per­sons may be con­nec­ted vir­tu­ally to a com­mit­tee meet­ing tak­ing place in per­son:

a.

com­mit­tee mem­bers for whom rep­res­ent­a­tion is not leg­ally pos­sible;

b.

par­ti­cipants in hear­ings in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 45 para­graph 1 let­ters b and c.

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

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

³ Persons 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.⁶⁰

¹ The 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.

² The com­mit­tees may de­cide to hold pub­lic hear­ings.

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

² The 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.

¹ The 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.

² The 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.

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

⁴ In 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 ...⁶²

¹ The 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.

² They 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.⁶³

³ The 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.⁶⁴

¹ The 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.⁶⁵

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

³ The 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 1967⁶⁶ on the Fed­er­al Audit Of­fice.

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

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

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

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

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

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

² The 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.⁶⁷

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

^3bis The 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.⁶⁸

⁴ The Del­eg­a­tion shall sub­mit re­ports and its pro­pos­als there­on to the Con­trol Com­mit­tees.⁶⁹

⁵ It 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.

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

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

³ The Com­mit­tee con­sti­tutes it­self.

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

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

^1bis It is also re­spons­ible for ed­it­or­i­al cor­rec­tions which are not sub­ject to a fi­nal vote in le­gis­lat­ive texts.⁷³

² It 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.

³ The 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.

¹ Where, 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.

² Fol­low­ing 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.

³ The 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.

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

² Mem­bers 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.

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

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

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

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

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

⁴ Par­lia­ment­ary 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.

⁵ Par­lia­ment­ary 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 1988⁷⁴.

¹ As­sembly 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.

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

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

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

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

² They 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.⁷⁵

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.

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

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

³ If 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.

¹ The 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.

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

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

¹ The 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.

² Each 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.

¹ The 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.

² Un­less 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.

³ Powers 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.

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

² Pop­u­lar 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

³ In­tro­duc­tion 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.⁷⁷

⁴ After the con­clu­sion of the first de­tailed con­sid­er­a­tion, a vote is taken in each coun­cil 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.

⁵ If a bill is re­jec­ted by a coun­cil 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.

⁶ If 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.⁷⁸

¹ Either 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.

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

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

¹ Any 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.

^1bis A 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).⁷⁹

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

³ A re­con­sid­er­a­tion of any de­cision made may be re­ques­ted by means of a point of or­der un­til a coun­cil has con­cluded its de­lib­er­a­tions on an item of busi­ness.⁸⁰

^3bis A point of or­der re­quest­ing the re­con­sid­er­a­tion of a de­cision on in­tro­duc­tion is not per­mit­ted.⁸¹

^3ter A 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.⁸²

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

¹ Where 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.

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

³ If 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.⁸³

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

² If 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.

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

⁴ No vote is held on un­op­posed pro­pos­als.

⁵ The 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 coun­cils (Art. 159 para. 3 Cst.);

d.

fi­nal votes.⁸⁴

¹ If 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.

² The 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.

³ If 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.

⁴ The or­der of vot­ing on the pro­pos­als may not be altered by a con­tin­gent pro­pos­al.⁸⁵

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

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

¹ A 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.⁸⁶

^1bis The fi­nal vote shall be held as soon as the coun­cils have reached un­an­im­ous de­cisions on the bill and have ap­proved the word­ing re­vised by the Draft­ing Com­mit­tee. The two coun­cils shall hold the fi­nal vote on the same day.⁸⁷

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

³ If one or both coun­cils 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.

¹ Fed­er­al As­sembly de­crees re­quire the agree­ment of both coun­cils.

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

¹ Busi­ness that must be dealt with sep­ar­ately by the two coun­cils shall be al­loc­ated to one of the Coun­cils for pri­or con­sid­er­a­tion (the first coun­cil).

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

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

² The 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 coun­cils for the first time in the same ses­sion.

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

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

³ Where 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 coun­cil after the first coun­cil has voted on them all.

⁴ A fed­er­al de­cree on the counter pro­pos­al to a pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive must be passed on to the oth­er coun­cil with the fed­er­al de­cree on the re­lated pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive.⁸⁸

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

³ A coun­cil 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 coun­cils move jointly for the is­sue to be re­con­sidered.

The coun­cils 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.

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

² The pre­lim­in­ary con­sulta­tion com­mit­tees shall each con­trib­ute 13 mem­bers to the con­cili­ation com­mit­tee. If the pre­lim­in­ary con­sulta­tion com­mit­tee of a coun­cil 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.

³ The com­mit­tee pres­id­ent of the first coun­cil 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.⁹⁰

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

² The 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.

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

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

² If the com­prom­ise mo­tion is re­jec­ted by either of the coun­cils, 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.

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

² In the case of the fed­er­al de­crees on the le­gis­lature plan, the fin­an­cial plan and the fin­an­cial frame­work in the budget, the con­cili­ation com­mit­tee shall pro­pose a com­prom­ise mo­tion in re­spect of each dif­fer­ence.⁹³ A sep­ar­ate vote is held on each mo­tion.⁹⁴

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

If the di­ver­gent de­cisions of the two coun­cils re­late to an en­tire item of busi­ness, the second re­jec­tion by either coun­cil 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.⁹⁵

the de­cision on wheth­er a can­ton­al ini­ti­at­ive should be en­dorsed;

h.

the ap­prov­al of Fed­er­al Coun­cil or­din­ances;

i.⁹⁶

...

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.

¹ The 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.

² If 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.⁹⁷

³ If 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.⁹⁸

¹ The 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.

² If the de­cisions of the two coun­cils in re­la­tion to the valid­ity of the pop­u­lar ini­ti­at­ive or of parts there­of di­verge from each oth­er and the coun­cil 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.

³ If the com­prom­ise mo­tion on the vot­ing re­com­mend­a­tion is re­jec­ted, in derog­a­tion from Art­icle 93 para. 2 only the pro­vi­sion con­cerned shall be de­leted.⁹⁹

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

² The 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.¹⁰⁰

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.

¹ The 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.

² The fed­er­al de­cree on the counter-pro­pos­al of the Fed­er­al As­sembly shall be de­bated in each coun­cil 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 coun­cil 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.

¹ Where 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.

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

¹ The 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.

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

¹ If 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.

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

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

¹ If one coun­cil 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 ...¹⁰³

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

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

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

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

³ A 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.

¹ Par­lia­ment­ary 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.

² The rel­ev­ant com­mit­tee of the coun­cil 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 coun­cil not to en­dorse the ini­ti­at­ive. If the coun­cil fol­lows the in­struc­tions of the com­mit­tee, the ini­ti­at­ive is re­garded as hav­ing been dealt with.¹⁰⁵

³ The de­cision to en­dorse an ini­ti­at­ive or to have the com­mit­tee pre­pare its own ini­ti­at­ive re­quires the con­sent of the rel­ev­ant com­mit­tee of the oth­er coun­cil. 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 coun­cils agree. If the second coun­cil does not agree, the ini­ti­at­ive is ir­re­voc­ably re­jec­ted.¹⁰⁶

^3bis The com­mit­tee of the oth­er coun­cil and, in the event of dis­agree­ment, the rel­ev­ant com­mit­tees of the coun­cils de­cide in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 3 or sub­mit their pro­pos­al to their coun­cil one year at the latest after the pre­ced­ing com­mit­tee or Coun­cil de­cision on the ini­ti­at­ive.¹⁰⁷

⁴ If 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 ex­am­in­a­tionin an ad­vis­ory ca­pa­city at the meet­ings of the com­mit­tee of his or her coun­cil.¹⁰⁸

⁵ If 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.¹⁰⁹

¹ An 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.¹¹⁰

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

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

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

² If 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 ex­am­in­a­tionin an ad­vis­ory ca­pa­city at the meet­ings of the com­mit­tee of his or her coun­cil.¹¹¹

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

⁴ The ob­lig­a­tions to con­duct an as­sess­ment un­der Art­icle 4 and the ob­lig­a­tion to es­tim­ate reg­u­lat­ory costs un­der Art­icle 5 of the Busi­ness Cost Re­lief Act of 29 Septem­ber 2023¹¹² ap­ply by ana­logy.¹¹³

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

² It shall sub­mit the pre­lim­in­ary draftand its ex­plan­at­ory re­port for con­sulta­tion in ac­cord­ance with the pro­vi­sions of the Con­sulta­tion Pro­ced­ure Act of 18 March 2005¹¹⁴.¹¹⁵

³ It 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.¹¹⁶

^3bis In the case of a draft bill un­der Art­icle 165 or Art­icle 173 para­graph 1 let­ter c of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion, the dead­line for the Fed­er­al Coun­cil's opin­ion may be set in such a way that it can be dealt with in the next or­din­ary or ex­traordin­ary ses­sion.¹¹⁷

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

¹ If 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.

² The 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.

¹ If the coun­cil ap­proves its com­mit­tee's bill in the vote on the bill in its en­tirety, the ini­ti­at­ive is sub­mit­ted to the oth­er coun­cil and is fur­ther con­sidered in ac­cord­ance with the or­din­ary pro­ced­ure for bills.¹¹⁸

^1bis If 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.¹¹⁹

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

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

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

¹ Can­ton­al ini­ti­at­ives are sub­ject to a pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion.

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

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

^3bis The com­mit­tees are sub­ject to the time lim­its in Art­icle 109 para­graphs 2 and 3^bis.¹²¹

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

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

² For the fur­ther pro­ced­ure, Art­icles 111–114 ap­ply by ana­logy. The aban­don­ment of an ini­ti­at­ive re­quires the agree­ment of the oth­er coun­cil. If the first coun­cil 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.

¹ Par­lia­ment­ary pro­ced­ur­al re­quests are:

a.

mo­tions;

b.

pos­tu­lates;

c.

in­ter­pel­la­tions;

d.

ques­tions.

² They shall nor­mally be ad­dressed to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

³ If 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.

⁴ They 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.

^4bis They 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.¹²²

⁵ In the case of pro­ced­ur­al re­quests made to the of­fices of the coun­cils and to the fed­er­al courts, Art­icles 120–125 ap­ply by ana­logy.¹²³

¹ Pro­ced­ur­al 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.

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

³ The word­ing of a pro­ced­ur­al re­quest may not be altered after its sub­mis­sion; Art­icle 121 para­graph 4 let­ter b is re­served.¹²⁴

⁴ ...¹²⁵

⁵ A 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.¹²⁶

⁶ ...¹²⁷

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

² If 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.

³ A 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.

¹ The 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.

^1bis If identic­al mo­tions have been sub­mit­ted by com­mit­tees of both Coun­cils no later than one week be­fore the next or­din­ary or ex­traordin­ary ses­sion, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall sub­mit its pro­pos­al by the time the mo­tion is dis­cussed in that ses­sion.¹²⁹

^1ter Com­mit­tee mo­tions that re­quest the Fed­er­al Coun­cil to en­act or amend an or­din­ance based on Art­icle 184 para­graph 3 or Art­icle 185 para­graph 3 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion or on a stat­utory au­thor­isa­tion to deal with a crisis in ac­cord­ance with An­nex 2 shall be placed on the agenda of the next or cur­rent or­din­ary or ex­traordin­ary ses­sion. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall sub­mit its pro­pos­al in writ­ing or or­ally.¹³⁰

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

³ A mo­tion ac­cep­ted by the first coun­cil may in the second coun­cil 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.

⁴ If the second coun­cil makes an amend­ment, the first coun­cil may in the second con­sid­er­a­tion:

a.

agree to the amend­ment;

b.

stand by its de­cision to ac­cept the mo­tion in its ori­gin­al form; or

c.

ir­re­voc­ably re­ject the mo­tion.¹³¹

^4bis If the first coun­cil in the second con­sid­er­a­tion stands by its de­cision to ac­cept the mo­tion in its ori­gin­al form, the second coun­cil may agree to this de­cision or ir­re­voc­ably re­ject the mo­tion.¹³²

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

a.

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

b.

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

¹ If 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.¹³⁴

^1bis The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall re­port im­me­di­ately if:

a.

a com­mit­tee mo­tion re­quest­ing the amend­ment of a Fed­er­al Coun­cil or­din­ance that has been in force for less than one year or of a draft Fed­er­al Coun­cil or­din­ance is still pending after six months; or

b.

a com­mit­tee mo­tion re­quest­ing the en­act­ment or amend­ment of an or­din­ance based on Art­icle 184 para­graph 3 or Art­icle 185 para­graph 3 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion or on a stat­utory au­thor­isa­tion to man­age a crisis in ac­cord­ance with An­nex 2 is still pending after the dead­line for re­port­ing provided for in the mo­tion text has ex­pired.¹³⁵

^1ter The Fed­er­al Coun­cil's re­port shall be for­war­ded to the rel­ev­ant com­mit­tees.¹³⁶

² A 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 coun­cils un­less the mo­tion relates to is­sues of the or­gan­isa­tion or pro­ced­ure of a spe­cif­ic coun­cil.

³ A 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.

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

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

⁶ If 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 coun­cils 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.

¹ The 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.¹³⁷

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

³ The 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.

⁴ If 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.

⁵ A 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 coun­cil that has ap­proved the pos­tu­late must con­sent to it be­ing closed.

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

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

³ An in­ter­pel­la­tion or a ques­tion may be de­clared ur­gent.

⁴ An 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.

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

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

² If 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.

³ Fol­low­ing 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.

⁴ The pres­id­ents of the com­mit­tees re­spons­ible for the pre­lim­in­ary ex­am­in­a­tion in each coun­cil 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.

¹ The 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.

² If 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.

¹ If 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

² Votes 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.

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

⁴ If 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.

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

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

² The 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.

³ In 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.

⁴ Ex­cluded 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.

¹ Elec­tions 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.¹⁴⁵

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

³ If 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.

¹ Elec­tions 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.

² The 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.

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

² The 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.

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

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

² If 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.

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

⁴ Ex­cluded 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.