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

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