Government and Administration Organisation Act
(GAOA)

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil is the highest ex­ec­ut­ive au­thor­ity of the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

² It com­prises sev­en mem­bers.

³ It is as­sisted by the Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor.

¹ The Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion is sub­or­din­ate to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil. It com­prises the de­part­ments and the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery.

² The in­di­vidu­al de­part­ments are di­vided in­to of­fices, which may be or­gan­ised in­to groups. Each has a Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ari­at.

³ The Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion also in­cludes de­cent­ral­ised ad­min­is­trat­ive units in ac­cord­ance with the terms of its or­gan­isa­tion­al dir­ect­ives.

⁴ Fed­er­al le­gis­la­tion may as­sign ad­min­is­trat­ive du­ties to en­tit­ies un­der pub­lic or private law which are not part of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil and Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion act in ac­cord­ance with the Con­sti­tu­tion and the law.

² They are com­mit­ted to the com­mon wel­fare, pro­tect cit­izen’s rights and the powers of the can­tons and pro­mote co­oper­a­tion between the Con­fed­er­a­tion and can­tons.

³ They shall act to achieve their aims in a man­ner that is ap­pro­pri­ate and eco­nom­ic­ally vi­able.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil is col­lect­ively re­spons­ible for its gov­ern­ment­al func­tions.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall reg­u­larly re­view the tasks of the Con­fed­er­a­tion and their im­ple­ment­a­tion as well as the or­gan­isa­tion of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion. In do­ing so, it shall ap­ply the cri­terion of ne­ces­sity and as­sess wheth­er the aims set out in the Con­sti­tu­tion and the law have been achieved. It shall de­vel­op for­ward-look­ing solu­tions for ac­tion by the state.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the aims of its gov­ern­ment policy and the means to achieve them.

² It gives pri­or­ity to the ful­fil­ment of its ob­lig­a­tions of gov­ern­ment.

³ It takes all the meas­ures re­quired to en­sure the con­tinu­ation of gov­ern­ment activ­it­ies at all times.

⁴ It works to main­tain the unity of the state and the co­he­sion of the coun­try while pro­tect­ing the di­versity of the fed­er­al sys­tem. It helps the oth­er state in­sti­tu­tions to ful­fil the du­ties as­signed to them by the Con­sti­tu­tion and the law in a timely and ap­pro­pri­ate man­ner.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil con­ducts the pre­lim­in­ary le­gis­lat­ive pro­ceed­ings, sub­ject to the par­lia­ment­ary right to an ini­ti­ate le­gis­la­tion. It sub­mits drafts of con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ments, fed­er­al acts and de­crees to the Fed­er­al As­sembly and is­sues or­din­ances, provided it is au­thor­ised to do so un­der the Con­sti­tu­tion and by law.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may con­clude, amend or with­draw from treat­ies un­der in­ter­na­tion­al law at its own be­hest in as far as it is au­thor­ised to do so by a fed­er­al act or by an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty ap­proved by the Fed­er­al As­sembly. Au­thor­isa­tion to con­clude an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty in­cludes au­thor­isa­tion to amend or with­draw from it.⁶

^1bis It may with­draw from an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty at its own be­hest in as far as the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion provides for with­draw­al.⁷

² It may con­clude in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies of lim­ited scope at its own be­hest. It may like­wise in­de­pend­ently make amend­ments of lim­ited scope to treat­ies or with­draw from in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies of lim­ited scope.⁸

3 In­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies or amend­ments of lim­ited scope are those that:⁹

a.

do not cre­ate new ob­lig­a­tions for Switzer­land and do not con­sti­tute a waiver of ex­ist­ing rights;

b.

serve to im­ple­ment treat­ies ap­proved by the Fed­er­al As­sembly and simply provide more de­tail on rights, ob­lig­a­tions or or­gan­isa­tion­al prin­ciples that are already set out in the main treaty;

c.

primar­ily con­cern the au­thor­it­ies and in­volve tech­nic­al ad­min­is­trat­ive is­sues.¹⁰

⁴ In­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies or amend­ments of lim­ited scope do not in­clude those that:¹¹

a.

meet any of the re­quire­ments for an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum on an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty un­der Art­icle 141 para­graph 1 let­ter d of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion;

b.

con­tain pro­vi­sions on mat­ters the reg­u­la­tion of which falls solely un­der can­ton­al jur­is­dic­tion;

c.

cause non-re­cur­ring ex­pendit­ure ex­ceed­ing five mil­lion francs or re­cur­ring ex­pendit­ure of more than two mil­lion francs per year.¹²

¹ Where the Fed­er­al As­sembly is re­spons­ible for ap­prov­ing the con­clu­sion of or amend­ment to an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may de­term­ine or agree the pro­vi­sion­al ap­plic­a­tion of the treaty without the ap­prov­al of the Fed­er­al As­sembly when it is ne­ces­sary to safe­guard im­port­ant Swiss in­terests and the mat­ter is of par­tic­u­lar ur­gency.¹⁴

^1bis It shall re­frain from ap­ply­ing the treaty pro­vi­sion­ally if the com­pet­ent com­mit­tees of both Coun­cils are against do­ing so.¹⁵

² The pro­vi­sion­al ap­plic­a­tion of an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty ends if the Fed­er­al Coun­cil fails to present the Fed­er­al As­sembly with a draft of a fed­er­al de­cree on the treaty in ques­tion with­in six months.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall no­ti­fy the parties to the treaty of the ter­min­a­tion of the pro­vi­sion­al ap­plic­a­tion.

¹ Where the Fed­er­al As­sembly is re­spons­ible for ap­prov­ing with­draw­al from an in­ter­na­tion­al treaty, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may with­draw from the treaty without the ap­prov­al of the Fed­er­al As­sembly if it is ne­ces­sary to do so in or­der to safe­guard im­port­ant in­terests of Switzer­land and if there is a par­tic­u­lar ur­gency in do­ing so.

² It may not with­draw ur­gently if the re­spons­ible com­mit­tees of both cham­bers ob­ject to with­draw­al.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil, in dir­ect ap­plic­a­tion of Art­icle 184 para­graph 3 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion, may when ne­ces­sary is­sue an or­din­ance to safe­guard the in­terests of the coun­try.

² It shall lim­it the peri­od of valid­ity of the or­din­ance ap­pro­pri­ately; the peri­od of valid­ity may not ex­ceed four years.

³ It may ex­tend the peri­od of valid­ity once. In this case, the or­din­ance ceases to ap­ply six months after the be­gin­ning of the ex­ten­sion if the Fed­er­al Coun­cil fails to present the Fed­er­al As­sembly with a bill es­tab­lish­ing a leg­al basis for the con­tent of the or­din­ance.

⁴ The or­din­ance ceases to ap­ply:

a.

if the bill men­tioned in para­graph 3 is re­jec­ted by the Fed­er­al As­sembly; or

b.

at the latest with in­tro­duc­tion of the leg­al basis provided for in para­graph 3.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may, in dir­ect ap­plic­a­tion of Art­icle 185 para­graph 3 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion, is­sue an or­din­ance to counter ex­ist­ing or im­min­ent threats of ser­i­ous dis­rup­tion to pub­lic or­der or in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity.

² The or­din­ance ceases to ap­ply:

a.

six months after its com­mence­ment if the Fed­er­al Coun­cil fails to sub­mit to the Fed­er­al As­sembly:

1.

a bill es­tab­lish­ing a leg­al basis for the con­tent of the or­din­ance, or

2.

a bill con­tain­ing a Fed­er­al As­sembly or­din­ance un­der Art­icle 173 para­graph 1 let­ter c of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion which re­places the Fed­er­al Coun­cil’s or­din­ance;

b.

if the bill is re­jec­ted by the Fed­er­al As­sembly; or

c.

if the leg­al basis or the re­place­ment or­din­ance is­sued by the Fed­er­al As­sembly comes in­to force.

³ The Fed­er­al As­sembly or­din­ance provided for in para­graph 2 let­ter a num­ber 2 ceases to ap­ply three years at the latest from its com­mence­ment.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may, in dir­ect ap­plic­a­tion of Art­icle 184 para­graph 3 or Art­icle 185 para­graph 3 of the Fed­er­al Con­sti­tu­tion, is­sue a rul­ing:

a.

if re­quired to pro­tect the coun­try’s in­terests; or

b.

in or­der to counter ex­ist­ing or im­min­ent threats of ser­i­ous dis­rup­tion to pub­lic or­der or in­tern­al or ex­tern­al se­cur­ity.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall in­form the com­pet­ent or­gan of the Fed­er­al As­sembly with­in 24 hours of its res­ol­u­tion on the rul­ing.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­term­ines the ap­pro­pri­ate or­gan­isa­tion of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion and ad­apts it to cir­cum­stances. It may di­verge from the or­gan­isa­tion­al pro­vi­sions of oth­er fed­er­al acts un­less the Fed­er­al As­sembly ex­pressly places lim­it­a­tions on its or­gan­isa­tion­al powers.²¹

² It shall en­cour­age ef­fi­ciency and in­nov­at­ive abil­ity with­in the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion.

³ It su­per­vises the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion in a con­tinu­ous and sys­tem­at­ic man­ner.

⁴ It mon­it­ors the de­cent­ral­ised ad­min­is­trat­ive bod­ies and oth­er bod­ies charged with car­ry­ing out fed­er­al ad­min­is­trat­ive tasks which are not them­selves part of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion.

⁵ It de­term­ines, as ap­pro­pri­ate, the stra­tegic goals for the fol­low­ing autonom­ous units:

a.

en­tit­ies un­der pub­lic or private law which:

1.

are not part of the cent­ral Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion,

2.

were cre­ated un­der fed­er­al le­gis­la­tion or over which the Con­fed­er­a­tion has con­trol by vir­tue of its cap­it­al or vot­ing rights, and

3.

are del­eg­ated fed­er­al ad­min­is­trat­ive du­ties;

b.

the ETH Do­main.²²

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil en­sures that the le­gis­la­tion and oth­er de­cisions of the Fed­er­al As­sembly are im­ple­men­ted.

² It shall en­sure the ad­min­is­tra­tion of ad­min­is­trat­ive justice in as far as it is re­quired to do so by le­gis­la­tion.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil en­sures that the Fed­er­al As­sembly, the can­tons and the gen­er­al pub­lic are suit­ably in­formed.

² It en­sures that con­sist­ent in­form­a­tion on its as­sess­ments, plans, de­cisions and pro­vi­sions is provided promptly and reg­u­larly.

³ Spe­cial pro­vi­sions to pro­tect over­rid­ing pub­lic or private in­terests are re­served.

1 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil ap­points a lead­ing mem­ber of the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery as Fed­er­al Coun­cil spokes­per­son.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil spokes­per­son:

a.

provides in­form­a­tion on be­half of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil to the gen­er­al pub­lic;

b.

ad­vises the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and its mem­bers on in­form­a­tion and com­mu­nic­a­tion is­sues;

c.

co­ordin­ates the in­form­a­tion activ­it­ies of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, the de­part­ments and the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil main­tains con­tact with the gen­er­al pub­lic and en­sures they are in­formed of the opin­ions and con­cerns dis­cussed in the pub­lic do­main.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reaches its de­cisions as a col­legi­al body.

² The mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall rep­res­ent the de­cisions of the whole.

¹ The mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor in­form the Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­larly about their busi­ness and in par­tic­u­lar about re­lated risks and pos­sible chal­lenges.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may re­quest spe­cif­ic in­form­a­tion from its mem­bers and from the Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil mem­bers shall make de­cisions of ma­jor im­port­ance or polit­ic­al scope jointly and at the same time.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may de­cide on oth­er items of busi­ness in a sim­pli­fied pro­ced­ure.

³ The es­sen­tial con­tent of Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­lib­er­a­tions and de­cisions are re­cor­ded in writ­ing at all times. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil minutes guar­an­tee trans­par­ency and aid the Fed­er­al Coun­cil as a man­age­ment in­stru­ment.²⁵

In pre­par­ing items of busi­ness of ma­jor im­port­ance or polit­ic­al scope, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall, if ne­ces­sary, out­line the rel­ev­ant aims and guidelines.

¹ Items of busi­ness on which the Fed­er­al Coun­cil must de­cide are presen­ted to the mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil in a joint re­port­ing pro­ced­ure.

² The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery reg­u­lates the joint re­port­ing pro­ced­ure.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil con­venes as fre­quently as its busi­ness re­quires.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil is con­vened by the Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor on be­half of the Pres­id­ent of the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

³ Each mem­ber of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may at any time ask for the Coun­cil to con­vene.

⁴ In cases of ur­gency the Pres­id­ent of the Con­fed­er­a­tion may make an ex­cep­tion to the reg­u­lar pro­ced­ure for con­ven­ing the Coun­cil and con­duct­ing ne­go­ti­ations.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil holds spe­cial dis­cus­sions and closed-door meet­ings on is­sues of far-reach­ing im­port­ance.

¹ The Pres­id­ent of the Con­fed­er­a­tion chairs the dis­cus­sions in the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

² In ad­di­tion to the mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, the Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor also par­ti­cip­ates in the de­lib­er­a­tions of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil in an ad­vis­ory ca­pa­city. He or she has the right to make pro­pos­als in or­der to ful­fil the tasks of the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery.²⁶

³ The Vice-Chan­cel­lors shall be present at the dis­cus­sions un­less oth­er­wise spe­cified by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may call on the ex­pert­ise of its ad­min­is­trat­ive staff and qual­i­fied per­sons from with­in and out­side of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion when it con­siders this ne­ces­sary in or­der to ac­quire in­form­a­tion and form an opin­ion.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may only reach a de­cision if at least four of its mem­bers are present.

² De­cisions are taken by a ma­jor­ity vote. Fed­er­al Coun­cil­lors are per­mit­ted to ab­stain from vot­ing but a val­id de­cision re­quires the votes of at least three mem­bers.

³ The chair­per­son of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil takes part in the vote. In the event of a tie, his or her vote is worth double. This does not ap­ply in the case of elec­tions.

¹ Mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the per­sons men­tioned in Art­icle 18 shall re­cuse them­selves if they have an im­me­di­ate per­son­al in­terest in the mat­ter at hand.

² If the Coun­cil is mak­ing a rul­ing or de­cid­ing on an ap­peal, the pro­vi­sions on re­cus­al of the Fed­er­al Act of 20 Decem­ber 1968²⁷ on Ad­min­is­trat­ive Pro­ced­ure ap­ply.

The dis­cus­sions of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the joint re­port­ing pro­ced­ure men­tioned in Arti­cle 15 are not pub­lic. The pub­lic are in­formed in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 10.

1 The Fed­er­al Coun­cil ap­points a deputy for each Fed­er­al Coun­cil­lor from among its mem­bers.

² Each mem­ber of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall en­sure that in the event of un­fore­seen in­cid­ents his or her deputy is no­ti­fied quickly and com­pre­hens­ively about im­port­ant busi­ness and the is­sues to be de­cided.

³ Each mem­ber of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and his or her deputy shall en­sure the or­derly han­dover of busi­ness.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may ap­point com­mit­tees from among its mem­bers for cer­tain items of busi­ness. These com­mit­tees are nor­mally made up of three mem­bers.

² The com­mit­tees pre­pare dis­cus­sions and de­cisions for the Fed­er­al Coun­cil or con­duct dis­cus­sions on be­half of the col­legi­al body with oth­er in­tern­al or ex­tern­al ad­min­is­trat­ive bod­ies or private in­di­vidu­als. They have no de­cision-mak­ing powers.

³ They in­form the Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­larly about their dis­cus­sions.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Chan­cellery runs the sec­ret­ari­at, which in par­tic­u­lar keeps minutes of the dis­cus­sions in the com­mit­tee and man­ages the doc­u­ment­a­tion.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil sets out in de­tail how it ex­er­cises its func­tions in an or­din­ance.

¹ The Pres­id­ent of the Con­fed­er­a­tion heads the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

² The Pres­id­ent of the Con­fed­er­a­tion:

a.

en­sures that the Fed­er­al Coun­cil ac­com­plishes its tasks in a timely, ap­pro­pri­ate and co­ordin­ated man­ner;

a^bis.³⁰

co­ordin­ates mat­ters of ma­jor im­port­ance in which two or more de­part­ments are in­volved or which are of ma­jor im­port­ance for the coun­try;

b.³¹

pre­pares dis­cus­sions for the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the agenda of mat­ters to be dis­cussed and seeks con­cili­ation on con­tro­ver­sial is­sues;

b^bis.³²

may in­struct a mem­ber of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil to sub­mit a spe­cif­ic item of busi­ness to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil at a giv­en time;

c.

en­sures that the Fed­er­al Coun­cil or­gan­ises and car­ries out its su­per­vi­sion of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion in an ap­pro­pri­ate man­ner;

d.

may at any time or­der in­vest­ig­a­tions in­to spe­cif­ic mat­ters and sug­gest ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ures to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil where ne­ces­sary.

¹ In ur­gent cases, the Pres­id­ent may or­der pre­cau­tion­ary meas­ures to be taken.

² If it is not pos­sible to ar­range an or­din­ary or ex­traordin­ary Fed­er­al Coun­cil meet­ing, the Pres­id­ent de­cides in its stead.

³ These de­cisions must be sub­mit­ted ret­ro­spect­ively to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil for ap­prov­al.

⁴ In ad­di­tion, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may au­thor­ise the Pres­id­ent of the Con­fed­er­a­tion to de­cide on mat­ters of a pre­dom­in­antly form­al nature.

¹ If the Pres­id­ent is un­able to ful­fil his or her pub­lic du­ties, the Vice-Pres­id­ent takes re­spons­ib­il­ity as his or her re­place­ment and takes over the pres­id­en­tial du­ties.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may trans­fer cer­tain pres­id­en­tial powers to the Vice-Pres­id­ent.

The Pres­id­ent rep­res­ents the Fed­er­al Coun­cil in Switzer­land and abroad.

The Pres­id­ent is re­spons­ible for main­tain­ing re­la­tions between the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons with re­gard to shared con­cerns of a gen­er­al nature.

¹ The Pres­id­ent shall have a pres­id­en­tial ser­vices unit to take care of his or her spe­cial tasks, and in par­tic­u­lar for in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions, com­mu­nic­a­tion, pro­tocol and or­gan­isa­tion­al mat­ters.

² The pres­id­en­tial ser­vices unit is af­fil­i­ated to the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery.

¹ The Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor is the chief of staff of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

² The Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor:

a.

sup­ports the Pres­id­ent of the Con­fed­er­a­tion and the Fed­er­al Coun­cil in the ful­fil­ment of their tasks;

b.

ful­fils the re­spons­ib­il­it­ies to the Fed­er­al As­sembly as­signed to him or her by the Con­sti­tu­tion and the law.

¹ The Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor is head of the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery, just as the Fed­er­al Coun­cil­lors are each head of a de­part­ment.

² The Vice-Chan­cel­lors dep­u­tise for the Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor.

³ Un­less sub­ject to spe­cif­ic ar­range­ments by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, the or­gan­isa­tion and man­age­ment of the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery are gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions that ap­ply to the en­tire Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion, with the ex­cep­tion of the sec­tion on gen­er­al sec­ret­ari­ats.

The Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor:

a.

ad­vises and sup­ports the Fed­er­al Pres­id­ent and the Fed­er­al Coun­cil in plan­ning and co­ordin­a­tion at gov­ern­ment level;

b.

cre­ates and su­per­vises work plans and busi­ness rosters for the Fed­er­al Pres­id­ent;

c.³⁴

takes part in the pre­par­a­tion and con­duct of Fed­er­al Coun­cil meet­ings and is re­spons­ible for keep­ing the minutes and pre­par­ing of­fi­cial cop­ies of the de­cisions;

c^bis.³⁵

mon­it­ors on be­half of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil the pro­gress of its busi­ness and of Fed­er­al As­sembly man­dates as well as the con­sist­ency of the con­tent of busi­ness and man­dates with the le­gis­lature plan, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil’s an­nu­al ob­ject­ives and oth­er fed­er­al plans, and may sub­mit pro­pos­als to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil there­on in the event of new de­vel­op­ments;

c^ter.³⁶

en­sures that a long-term and con­tinu­al ana­lys­is is made of the situ­ation and en­vir­on­ment and provides the Fed­er­al Coun­cil with reg­u­lar re­ports there­on;

d.

pre­pares the Fed­er­al Coun­cil’s re­ports to the Fed­er­al As­sembly on the key as­pects of gov­ern­ment policy and the man­age­ment of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil;

e.

ad­vises the Fed­er­al Pres­id­ent and the Fed­er­al Coun­cil in terms of the over­all man­age­ment of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion and as­sumes su­per­vis­ory roles;

f.

sup­ports the Fed­er­al Coun­cil in its deal­ings with the Fed­er­al As­sembly;

g.³⁷

ad­vises and sup­ports the Fed­er­al Coun­cil in its ef­forts to re­cog­nise and re­spond to crises in good time.

¹ The Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor en­sures the co­ordin­a­tion of in­ter­de­part­ment­al af­fairs.

^1bis He or she car­ries out cross-de­part­ment­al co­ordin­a­tion tasks aimed at re­cog­nising and re­spond­ing to crises in good time.³⁸

² He or she en­sures co­ordin­a­tion with the par­lia­ment­ary ad­min­is­tra­tion. In par­tic­u­lar, he or she con­sults the Sec­ret­ary Gen­er­al of the Fed­er­al As­sembly if the busi­ness of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil or its sub­or­din­ate of­fices dir­ectly af­fects the pro­ced­ure and or­gan­isa­tion of the Fed­er­al As­sembly or Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices. He or she may take part in the meet­ings of the Ad­min­is­tra­tion Com­mit­tee of the Fed­er­al As­sembly in an ad­vis­ory ca­pa­city.³⁹

The Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor may re­quest in­form­a­tion from the de­part­ments in or­der to ful­fil his or her tasks.

¹ The spokes­per­son for the Fed­er­al Coun­cil in co­oper­a­tion with the de­part­ments en­sures that ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ures are taken to in­form the pub­lic.

² The Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor is re­spons­ible for in­tern­al in­form­a­tion between the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the de­part­ments.

¹ The Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion is dir­ec­ted by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the heads of de­part­ment.

² Each mem­ber of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil heads a de­part­ment.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil al­loc­ates the de­part­ments among its mem­bers; each mem­ber has the duty to take over their des­ig­nated de­part­ment.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may real­loc­ate the de­part­ments at any time.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the heads of de­part­ment set the ob­ject­ives and pri­or­it­ies of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion.

² When they del­eg­ate the im­me­di­ate ful­fil­ment of tasks to pro­ject man­age­ment bod­ies or units of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion, they shall provide them with the re­quired powers and re­sources.

³ They as­sess the per­form­ance of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion and peri­od­ic­ally check wheth­er their ob­ject­ives have been met.

⁴ They en­sure the care­ful se­lec­tion and con­tinu­ing pro­fes­sion­al edu­ca­tion of em­ploy­ees.

¹ The head of de­part­ment bears polit­ic­al re­spons­ib­il­ity for run­ning a de­part­ment.

² The head of de­part­ment:

a.

sets the guidelines for run­ning the de­part­ment;

b.

del­eg­ates where ne­ces­sary the im­me­di­ate ful­fil­ment of the de­part­ment’s tasks to ad­min­is­trat­ive units and em­ploy­ees un­der its au­thor­ity;

c.

de­term­ines the or­gan­isa­tion of the de­part­ment with­in the terms of this act.

In prin­ciple, the head of de­part­ment has the un­res­tric­ted right to is­sue in­struc­tions, to lead his or her de­part­ment and in­ter­vene per­son­ally in a mat­ter. Spe­cial pro­vi­sions for in­di­vidu­al ad­min­is­trat­ive units and the at­tri­bu­tion of cer­tain powers un­der fed­er­al le­gis­la­tion are re­served.

¹ The de­part­ments shall man­age the fol­low­ing with an­nu­al ser­vice agree­ments:

a.

the ad­min­is­trat­ive units of the cent­ral fed­er­al ad­min­is­tra­tion;

b.

the ad­min­is­trat­ive units of the de­cent­ral­ised fed­er­al ad­min­is­tra­tion, if they do not keep their own ac­counts.

² The Swiss Fed­er­al Audit Of­fice is ex­emp­ted from man­age­ment by ser­vice agree­ment. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may provide for fur­ther ex­cep­tions.

³ Where groups and of­fices man­age ad­min­is­trat­ive units with their own glob­al budgets, the de­part­ment may del­eg­ate the power to them to con­clude the ser­vice agree­ments with these ad­min­is­trat­ive units.

⁴ In the ser­vice agree­ment, the tasks of the ad­min­is­trat­ive units are set out ac­cord­ing to pro­jects and ser­vice groups. They must be giv­en meas­ur­able goals.

⁵ The ad­min­is­trat­ive units re­port an­nu­ally on the achieve­ment of their goals. At the start of each le­gis­lature plan, they shall re­view the struc­ture and goals of their ser­vice groups.

The heads of de­part­ment may em­ploy per­son­al staff and as­sign tasks to them.

In con­sulta­tion with the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery, the heads of de­part­ment take the meas­ures re­quired to in­form the pub­lic of the de­part­ments’ activ­it­ies and de­cide who is re­spons­ible for dis­sem­in­at­ing that in­form­a­tion.

¹ Each de­part­ment has a gen­er­al sec­ret­ari­at as its gen­er­al ad­min­is­trat­ive of­fice. The gen­er­al sec­ret­ari­at may also con­duct oth­er tasks.

² The Sec­ret­ary Gen­er­al is the de­part­ment’s chief of staff.

¹ The Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ari­at sup­ports the head of de­part­ment in the plan­ning, or­gan­isa­tion and co­ordin­a­tion of the de­part­ment’s activ­it­ies and in the de­cisions that he or she is re­quired to make.

² It plays a su­per­vis­ory role as in­struc­ted by the head of de­part­ment.

³ It en­sures that the plan­ning and activ­it­ies of the de­part­ment are co­ordin­ated with those of the oth­er de­part­ments and of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

⁴ It sup­ports the head of de­part­ment in pre­par­ing Fed­er­al Coun­cil dis­cus­sions.

¹ The of­fices are the ad­min­is­trat­ive units charged with deal­ing with the busi­ness of the Ad­min­is­tra­tion.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil sets out in or­din­ances the way in which the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion is or­gan­ised in­to of­fices. It as­signs the of­fices areas of busi­ness which are closely re­lated if pos­sible and de­term­ines their tasks.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil as­sign the of­fices to the de­part­ments ac­cord­ing to the cri­ter­ia of man­age­ment, co­her­ence of tasks and ma­ter­i­al and polit­ic­al bal­ance. It may re­as­sign the of­fices at any time.

⁴ The heads of de­part­ment de­term­ine the or­gan­isa­tion­al struc­ture of the of­fices in their de­part­ment. With the con­sent of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, they may or­gan­ise the of­fices in­to groups.

⁵ The of­fice dir­ect­ors de­term­ine the de­tailed or­gan­isa­tion of their of­fices.

The dir­ect­ors of the groups and of­fices are re­spons­ible to their su­per­i­ors for dir­ect­ing the ad­min­is­trat­ive units un­der them and for car­ry­ing out the du­ties as­signed to them.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may ap­point as state sec­ret­ar­ies the dir­ect­ors of of­fices or groups that are re­spons­ible for im­port­ant fields of re­spons­ib­il­ity of a de­part­ment. An of­fices or group that is headed by a state sec­ret­ary may be known as a state sec­ret­ari­at.

² State sec­ret­ar­ies sup­port and re­lieve the bur­den on heads of de­part­ment par­tic­u­larly in their deal­ings with for­eign au­thor­it­ies.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may tem­por­ar­ily award the title of «State Sec­ret­ary» to per­sons in the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion who rep­res­ent Switzer­land on its be­half in high-level in­ter­na­tion­al ne­go­ti­ations.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil is­sues pro­vi­sions on char­ging ap­pro­pri­ate fees for de­cisions and oth­er ser­vices provided by the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion.

² It reg­u­lates the char­ging of fees in de­tail, in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

the pro­ced­ure for char­ging fees;

b.

the level of the fees;

c.

the ques­tion of li­ab­il­ity when two or more people are re­quired to pay fees;

d.

the time lim­its re­lat­ing to the char­ging of fees.

³ When set­ting fees, it ob­serves the prin­ciples of equi­val­ence and cost re­cov­ery.

⁴ It may make ex­cep­tions in char­ging fees provided the de­cision or ser­vice is of over­rid­ing pub­lic in­terest.

¹ De­pend­ing the im­port­ance of an item of busi­ness, it is dealt with by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, a de­par­tment, a group or an of­fice.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil sets out in an or­din­ance which ad­min­is­trat­ive unit is re­spons­ible for de­cisions about in­di­vidu­al items of busi­ness or in wider areas of busi­ness.

³ If the de­part­ments are un­able to agree on re­spons­ib­il­ity in spe­cif­ic cases, the Pres­id­ent of the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall de­cide.

⁴ The su­per­or­din­ate ad­min­is­trat­ive units and the Fed­er­al Coun­cil may at any time take re­spons­ib­il­ity for de­cid­ing on a par­tic­u­lar item of busi­ness.

⁵ Man­dat­ory re­spons­ib­il­it­ies in ac­cord­ance with the le­gis­la­tion on the ad­min­is­tra­tion of fed­er­al justice are re­served. If the ap­peal to the Fed­er­al Coun­cil is not per­mit­ted, the lat­ter may is­sue a dir­ect­ive to the com­pet­ent fed­er­al ad­min­is­trat­ive au­thor­ity on how to de­cide in ac­cord­ance with the law.

⁶ Fed­er­al Coun­cil busi­ness is del­eg­ated by law to the de­part­ment com­pet­ent for the mat­ter con­cerned where rul­ings must be is­sued that are sub­ject to an ap­peal to the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court. The ap­peal against Fed­er­al Coun­cil rul­ings un­der Art­icle 33 let­ters a and b of the Ad­min­is­trat­ive Court Act of 17 June 2005⁴⁸ is re­served.⁴⁹

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may del­eg­ate re­spons­ib­il­ity for en­act­ing leg­al rules to the de­part­ments. In do­ing so, it takes ac­count of the sig­ni­fic­ance of the leg­al rules.

² Del­eg­at­ing law­mak­ing to groups and of­fices is only per­mit­ted if au­thor­ised by a fed­er­al act or a gen­er­al bind­ing fed­er­al de­cree.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may del­eg­ate re­spons­ib­il­ity for con­clud­ing, amend­ing or with­draw­ing from in­ter­na­tion­al treat­ies to a de­part­ment. In the case of treat­ies of lim­ited scope, or of amend­ments or with­draw­als of lim­ited scope, it may also del­eg­ate this re­spons­ib­il­ity to a group or fed­er­al of­fice.

² It provides the Fed­er­al As­sembly with an an­nu­al re­port on the treat­ies con­cluded, amended or with­drawn from by the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, the de­part­ments, groups and fed­er­al of­fices. Only the Con­trol Del­eg­a­tion re­ceives no­tice of con­fid­en­tial or secret treat­ies.

¹ The heads of de­part­ment may au­thor­ise the fol­low­ing per­sons to sign par­tic­u­lar items of busi­ness in their name:

a.

sec­ret­ar­ies-gen­er­al or the per­sons rep­res­ent­ing them;

b.

mem­bers of seni­or man­age­ment in the groups and of­fices;

c.

fur­ther per­sons in the gen­er­al sec­ret­ari­at in re­la­tion to the de­part­ment’s re­spons­ib­il­it­ies as an ap­peal au­thor­ity.

² They may also au­thor­ise these per­sons to sign rul­ings.⁵¹

³ The dir­ect­ors of the groups and of­fices and the sec­ret­ar­ies gen­er­al de­term­ine who is to have sig­na­ture au­thor­isa­tion in their do­main. Con­tracts, rul­ings or oth­er form­al com­mit­ments by the Con­fed­er­a­tion for sums of more than 100,000 francs re­quire two sig­na­tures.⁵²

⁴ The open­ing of bank or postal ac­counts in Switzer­land re­quires an ad­di­tion­al sig­na­ture from the Fed­er­al Fin­ance Ad­min­is­tra­tion.⁵³

⁵ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may per­mit ex­cep­tions to the re­quire­ment for two sig­na­tures in spe­cial cases.⁵⁴

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil sets out the prin­ciples for main­tain­ing in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions in the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion.

² Deal­ings with the can­ton­al gov­ern­ments are the re­spons­ib­il­ity of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the heads of de­part­ment.

³ The dir­ect­ors of the groups and of­fices deal dir­ectly with oth­er fed­er­al, can­ton­al and com­mun­al au­thor­it­ies and pub­lic of­fices as well as with private in­di­vidu­als, ac­cord­ing to their re­spons­ib­il­it­ies.

The de­part­ments, groups and of­fices plan their activ­it­ies as part of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil’s gen­er­al plan­ning. The de­part­ments shall bring their plans to the at­ten­tion of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil, its com­mit­tees and the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery carry out the co­ordin­a­tion tasks as­signed to them by the Con­sti­tu­tion and the law.

¹ Un­der the lead­er­ship of the Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor, the Con­fer­ence of Sec­ret­ar­ies Gen­er­al dir­ects co­ordin­a­tion activ­it­ies in the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion.

² Where no spe­cial co­ordin­at­ing body ex­ists for spe­cif­ic tasks or items of busi­ness, the Con­fer­ence is re­spons­ible for these co­ordin­a­tion activ­it­ies, in par­tic­u­lar in pre­par­ing items of Fed­er­al Coun­cil busi­ness.

³ It may in terms of a Fed­er­al Coun­cil de­cree deal with in­ter­de­part­ment­al is­sues and pre­pare these for the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

⁴ The Sec­ret­ary Gen­er­al of the Fed­er­al As­sembly may take part in the Con­fer­ence of Sec­ret­ar­ies Gen­er­al in an ad­vis­ory ca­pa­city.⁵⁶

¹ The In­form­a­tion Con­fer­ence com­prises the Fed­er­al Coun­cil Spokes­per­son and the per­sons re­spons­ible for in­form­a­tion in the de­part­ments. A rep­res­ent­at­ive from the Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices may with take part in an ad­vis­ory role.⁵⁷

² The In­form­a­tion Con­fer­ence deals with cur­rent in­form­a­tion prob­lems in the de­part­ments and Fed­er­al Coun­cil; it co­ordin­ates and plans in­form­a­tion.⁵⁸

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil Spokes­per­son holds the chair.⁵⁹

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil and de­part­ments may em­ploy oth­er staff of­fice, plan­ning and co­ordin­a­tion bod­ies as in­sti­tu­tion­al­ised con­fer­ences or as self-con­tained ad­min­is­trat­ive units.

The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may form pro­ject or­gan­isa­tions to pro­cess im­port­ant in­ter­de­par­tment­al tasks of lim­ited dur­a­tion.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil and de­part­ments may con­sult or­gan­isa­tions and per­sons which are not part of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion.

² …⁶³

¹ Ex­tra-par­lia­ment­ary com­mit­tees ad­vise on a per­man­ent basis the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion on ac­com­plish­ing their tasks.

² They make de­cisions in­so­far as they are au­thor­ised to by a fed­er­al act.

Ex­tra-par­lia­ment­ary com­mit­tees may be es­tab­lished when tasks:

a.

re­quire spe­cial­ist know­ledge that is not avail­able in the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion;

b.

re­quire the can­tons or ad­di­tion­al in­ter­ested circles to be in­volved at an early stage; or

c.

are to be car­ried out by a de­cent­ral­ised unit of the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion which is not bound by dir­ect­ives.

¹ A com­mit­tee is not es­tab­lished if the task can be more ap­pro­pri­ately car­ried out by a unit of the cent­ral Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion or an or­gan­isa­tion or per­son from out­side the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil es­tab­lishes ex­tra-par­lia­ment­ary com­mit­tees and elects their mem­bers.

³ The mem­bers are ap­poin­ted for a term of of­fice of four years.

⁴ If a seat be­comes va­cant, a re­place­ment is elec­ted.

Every four years, when an ex­tra-par­lia­ment­ary com­mit­tee is elec­ted, the ne­ces­sity for the com­mit­tee, its tasks and com­pos­i­tion shall be re­viewed.

¹ Ex­tra-par­lia­ment­ary com­mit­tees may nor­mally have no more than 15 mem­bers.

² Among the mem­bers there must a bal­ance between the sexes, lan­guages, re­gions, age groups and in­terest groups, with due con­sid­er­a­tion of the com­mit­tee’s tasks.

³ Mem­bers the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion may only be elec­ted as mem­bers of a com­mit­tee in ex­cep­tion­al cases and with due reas­on.

¹ Com­mit­tee mem­bers must dis­close their in­terests be­fore elec­tion. The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall is­sue the rel­ev­ant im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions.

² Any per­son who re­fuses to dis­close their in­terests is not eli­gible for elec­tion to a com­mit­tee.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil sets out uni­form cri­ter­ia for the re­mu­ner­a­tion of com­mit­tee mem­bers.

² The amount of re­mu­ner­a­tion is made pub­lic.

¹ Un­der the Fed­er­al Act of 19 June 1992⁶⁹ on Data Pro­tec­tion, any fed­er­al au­thor­ity may run an in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ment­a­tion sys­tem to re­gister, ad­min­is­ter, in­dex and mon­it­or its cor­res­pond­ence and busi­ness. This sys­tem may con­tain data and per­son­al­ity pro­files par­tic­u­larly worthy of pro­tec­tion, de­pend­ing on the cor­res­pond­ence and type of busi­ness. The fed­er­al au­thor­ity con­cerned may only save per­son­al data if they serve to:

a.

pro­cess items of busi­ness;

b.

or­gan­ise op­er­a­tion­al pro­cesses;

c.

de­term­ine wheth­er it is pro­cessing the data of a par­tic­u­lar per­son;

d.

fa­cil­it­ate ac­cess to doc­u­ment­a­tion.

² Only the em­ploy­ees of the fed­er­al body con­cerned have ac­cess to the per­son­al data, and only in as far as they need it in or­der to carry out their tasks.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil is­sues im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions on the or­gan­isa­tion and op­er­a­tion of this in­form­a­tion and doc­u­ment­a­tion sys­tem and on the pro­tec­tion of the per­son­al data re­cor­ded in it.

The reg­u­la­tions in this sec­tion do not ap­ply if an­oth­er fed­er­al act reg­u­lates the pro­cessing of per­son­al data linked to the use of elec­tron­ic in­fra­struc­ture.

¹ Un­der the Fed­er­al Act of 19 June 1992⁷¹ on Data Pro­tec­tion, fed­er­al bod­ies may not re­cord and eval­u­ate per­son­al data linked to the use of their elec­tron­ic in­fra­struc­ture or any elec­tron­ic in­fra­struc­ture op­er­ated by them un­less this is ne­ces­sary for any of the pur­poses set out in Art­icles 57l–57o.

² Data pro­cessing as de­scribed in this sec­tion may also re­late to per­son­al data and per­son­al­ity pro­files which are par­tic­u­larly worthy of pro­tec­tion.

Elec­tron­ic in­fra­struc­ture in­cludes all sta­tion­ary or mo­bile in­stall­a­tions and devices cap­able of re­cord­ing per­son­al data; it in­cludes in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

data pro­cessing sys­tems, net­work com­pon­ents and soft­ware;

b.

data stor­age units;

c.

tele­phones;

d.

print­ers, scan­ners, fax and pho­to­copy­ing ma­chines;

e.

time­keep­ing sys­tems;

f.

ac­cess and video sur­veil­lance sys­tems;

g.

geo­pos­i­tion­ing sys­tems.

The fed­er­al bod­ies may re­cord per­son­al data as­so­ci­ated with the use of elec­tron­ic in­fra­struc­ture for the fol­low­ing pur­poses:

a.

all data, in­clud­ing of the con­tent of elec­tron­ic cor­res­pond­ence: for back-up pur­poses;

b.

data linked to the use of elec­tron­ic in­fra­struc­ture:

1.

to en­sure the se­cur­ity of in­form­a­tion and ser­vices,

2.

to en­sure that elec­tron­ic in­fra­struc­ture is main­tained on a tech­nic­al level,

3.

to veri­fy com­pli­ance with li­cens­ing reg­u­la­tions,

4.

to trace ac­cess to data col­lec­tions,

5.

to re­cord any costs arising from the use of elec­tron­ic in­fra­struc­ture;

c.

data on staff work­ing hours: to man­age work­ing hours;

d.

data on per­sons en­ter­ing, leav­ing and re­main­ing on fed­er­al premises: for se­cur­ity pur­poses.

Eval­u­ation of re­cor­ded data which does not re­late to per­sons is per­mit­ted for the pur­poses stated in Art­icle 57l.

Eval­u­ation of re­cor­ded data which does not re­late to named per­sons is per­mit­ted by ran­dom sampling for the fol­low­ing pur­poses:

a.

to mon­it­or the use of elec­tron­ic in­fra­struc­ture;

b.

to mon­it­or staff work­ing hours.

¹ Eval­u­ation of re­cor­ded data which relates to named per­sons is per­mit­ted for the fol­low­ing pur­poses:

a.

to in­vest­ig­ate spe­cif­ic sus­pi­cion re­gard­ing ab­use of elec­tron­ic in­fra­struc­ture and to take ac­tion against proven ab­use;

b.

to ana­lyse and elim­in­ate dis­rup­tions to elec­tron­ic in­fra­struc­ture and pro­tect against clear threats to this in­fra­struc­ture;

c.

to provide re­quired ser­vices;

d.

to de­term­ine and in­voice ser­vices rendered;

e.

to mon­it­or in­di­vidu­al work­ing hours.

² Eval­u­ation ac­cord­ing to para­graph 1 let­ter a may only be car­ried out:

a.

by fed­er­al bod­ies;

b.

once the per­son con­cerned has been in­formed in writ­ing.

The fed­er­al au­thor­ity takes the re­quired pre­vent­ive tech­nic­al and or­gan­isa­tion­al meas­ures to pre­vent ab­uses.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil reg­u­lates in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

the re­cord­ing, safe­guard­ing and de­struc­tion of data;

b.

the data pro­cessing pro­ced­ure;

c.

ac­cess to data;

d.

the tech­nic­al and the or­gan­isa­tion­al meas­ures to guar­an­tee data se­cur­ity.

² Data may only be kept as long as is ne­ces­sary.

³ Un­less oth­er­wise de­term­ined by an Or­din­ance is­sued by the Fed­er­al As­sembly, these im­ple­ment­ing pro­vi­sions where ap­pro­pri­ate ap­ply to data re­lat­ing to mem­bers of the Fed­er­al As­sembly and the staff of the Par­lia­ment­ary Ser­vices.

The of­fi­cial seat of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil, the de­part­ments and the Fed­er­al Chan­cellery is the City of Bern.

Mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor are free to choose their place of res­id­ence; however, it must be with­in easy reach of the of­fi­cial seat.

¹ The mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor may not oc­cupy an­oth­er po­s­i­tion in the Con­fed­er­a­tion or an of­fi­cial po­s­i­tion in a can­ton nor may they carry out an­oth­er pro­fes­sion or trade.

² They may not hold a po­s­i­tion as dir­ect­or, man­ager or mem­ber of an ad­min­is­tra­tion, su­per­vis­ory body or audit­ing body of or­gan­isa­tions that pur­sue an eco­nom­ic activ­ity.

³ The mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor may not ex­er­cise an of­fi­cial func­tion for a for­eign state or ac­cept a title or dec­or­a­tion from a for­eign au­thor­ity.⁷²

¹ The fol­low­ing may not be mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil at the same time:

a.

two per­sons mar­ried to each oth­er or who live in a re­gistered part­ner­ship or as co­hab­it­ees;

b.

re­l­at­ives and in-laws re­lated in dir­ect line or col­lat­er­ally up to the fourth de­gree;

c.

two per­sons whose spouses or re­gistered part­ners are sib­lings.

² This pro­vi­sion ap­plies by ana­logy to the de­gree of re­la­tion­ship between the Fed­er­al Chan­cel­lor and mem­bers of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil.

¹ Where re­quired by a fed­er­al act, the can­tons sub­mit their acts and or­din­ances to the Con­fed­er­a­tion for ap­prov­al; ap­prov­al is a con­di­tion of valid­ity.

² The de­part­ments give ap­prov­al in un­con­tro­ver­sial cases.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­cide in dis­puted cases. It may also give ap­prov­al with re­ser­va­tion.

¹ The can­tons shall in­form the Con­fed­er­a­tion of any agree­ments con­cluded among them­selves or with in­sti­tu­tions abroad. They shall in­form the Con­fed­er­a­tion of any agree­ments with an in­sti­tu­tion abroad be­fore they are con­cluded. The Con­fed­er­a­tion and the can­tons shall seek am­ic­able solu­tions.

² Agree­ments are ex­emp­ted from the duty to provide in­form­a­tion if they:

a.

serve to im­ple­ment agree­ments about which the Con­fed­er­a­tion is in­formed;

b.

prin­cip­ally con­cern the au­thor­it­ies or reg­u­late ad­min­is­trat­ive is­sues.

¹ The Con­fed­er­a­tion shall in­form the pub­lic in the Of­fi­cial Fed­er­al Gaz­ette about agree­ments that are brought to its know­ledge.

² The de­part­ment re­spons­ible ex­am­ines wheth­er or not an agree­ment is in ac­cord­ance with the law and in­terests of the Con­fed­er­a­tion. It shall in­form the can­tons that are party to the agree­ment of the res­ult with­in two months fol­low­ing pub­lic­a­tion of the in­form­a­tion in terms of para­graph 1. Can­tons that are not party to the agree­ment (third-party can­tons) shall in­form the con­tract­ing parties of any ob­jec­tions they may have with­in the same time peri­od.

³ If ob­jec­tions ex­ist, the de­part­ment or third-party can­tons shall at­tempt to reach an am­ic­able solu­tion with the can­tons that are party to the agree­ment.

⁴ If no solu­tion is reached, the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and third-party can­tons may raise a form­al ob­jec­tion with the Fed­er­al As­sembly with­in six months fol­low­ing pub­lic­a­tion of the in­form­a­tion in terms of para­graph 1.

¹ If, in pro­jects such as those in­volving build­ings and in­stall­a­tions, an act provides for the con­cen­tra­tion of de­cision-mak­ing in a single au­thor­ity (the prin­cip­al au­thor­ity), this au­thor­ity hears the state­ments of the spe­cial­ist au­thor­it­ies con­cerned be­fore mak­ing a de­cision.

² If sev­er­al spe­cial­ist au­thor­it­ies are con­cerned, the prin­cip­al au­thor­ity listens to their state­ments at the same time; it may however hear them one after the oth­er if there are par­tic­u­lar reas­ons for do­ing so.

³ The prin­cip­al au­thor­ity sets the spe­cial­ist au­thor­it­ies a dead­line for provid­ing a state­ment; the dead­line is nor­mally two months.

⁴ The prin­cip­al au­thor­ity and the spe­cial­ist au­thor­it­ies shall agree am­ic­ably on the cases in which ex­cep­tion­ally no state­ment needs to be provided.

¹ If there are any dif­fer­ences between the state­ments of the spe­cial­ist au­thor­it­ies or if the prin­cip­al au­thor­ity does not agree with the state­ments, it con­ducts a dis­cus­sion with the spe­cial­ist au­thor­it­ies with­in 30 days in or­der to elim­in­ate any dif­fer­ences. In this it may call on fur­ther au­thor­it­ies or spe­cial­ists.

² If the dif­fer­ences are suc­cess­fully elim­in­ated, the res­ult is bind­ing for the prin­cip­al au­thor­ity.

³ If the dif­fer­ences can­not be suc­cess­fully elim­in­ated, the prin­cip­al au­thor­ity de­cides; if con­sid­er­able diffe­rences ex­ist between ad­min­is­trat­ive units of the same de­part­ment, the prin­cip­al au­thor­ity shall in­struct the de­part­ment on how to re­solve the mat­ter. If sev­er­al de­part­ments are in­volved, they con­sult to reach an agree­ment. When ex­plain­ing their de­cision, they should ex­plain the dif­fer­ences in their po­s­i­tions.

⁴ The spe­cial­ist au­thor­it­ies con­cerned may de­fend their own point of view be­fore an ap­peals au­thor­ity even after hav­ing taken part in a pro­ced­ure to elim­in­ate dif­fer­ences.

¹ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil sets dead­lines with­in which a de­cision is to be reached for each pro­ced­ure to ap­prove plans for build­ings and in­stall­a­tions.

² If any of these dead­lines can­not be met, the prin­cip­al au­thor­ity in­forms the ap­plic­ant when the de­cision is likely to be made, with reas­ons giv­en.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion as well as its in­sti­tu­tions, busi­nesses and non-autonom­ous found­a­tions are ex­empt from all tax­a­tion im­posed by the can­tons and com­munes, oth­er than in the case of prop­er­ties which do not serve an im­me­di­ate pub­lic pur­pose.

¹ The can­tons are li­able to the Con­fed­er­a­tion for dam­age to its prop­erty as a res­ult of dis­rup­tion to pub­lic or­der.

² Can­ton­al and com­mun­al reg­u­la­tions on in­sur­ance ob­lig­a­tions do not ap­ply to the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

The Con­fed­er­a­tion ex­er­cises dom­i­cil­i­ary rights in its build­ings.

The Fed­er­al Act of 19 Septem­ber 1978⁸⁴ on the Or­gan­isa­tion and Man­age­ment of the Fed­er­al Coun­cil and the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion is re­pealed.

¹ This Act is sub­ject to an op­tion­al ref­er­en­dum.

² The Fed­er­al Coun­cil shall de­term­ine the com­mence­ment date.

Com­mence­ment date: 1 Oc­to­ber 1997⁸⁷