The Swiss Parliament portal: structure and research paths

Context

TL;DR

• The portal brings together the National Council and the Council of States.
• Curia Vista covers parliamentary items, sessions and interventions.
• The delegations include EFTA, NATO and OECD.
• Votes, archives and parliamentary services are available.

Key facts

• Bodies National → Council, Council of States and Federal Plenary Assembly
• → Search Advanced Search, Curia Vista and Official Bulletin
• → EFTA/EU relations, NATO PA and OECD DP
• Memory → Deputies since 1848, presidents and legislatures

The page of the Swiss Parliament opens with a broad structure, but the first level is clear: National Council, Council of States and Plenary Federal Assembly. For the two Chambers, the sections of the Office, the President, the members A–Z, the members per Canton, the arrangement of the seats and the mutations are indicated. MEPs from 1848 and advanced research also appear for the Plenary Assembly.

Rooms, committees and delegations

This organization distinguishes people, organs and acts. The portal separates thematic committees, supervisory committees, special committees and other committees. The menu lists CPE, CAG, CSSS, CAPTE, CTT, CET, CSEC, CPS, and CIP, along with reports, consultation items, subcommittees, and working groups. There are also attributions, reference documents and links.

An autonomous part is dedicated to delegations and international parliamentary relations. The portal features EFTA/EU, DCE, NATO AP, OSCE AP, OECD DP and the Permanent Delegations for Relations with Parliaments of Neighbouring States. Thislast area includes the Bundestag, the French Parliament, the Italian Parliament, the Landtag of Liechtenstein and the Austrian Parliament, with entries dedicated to activities, calendars and legal bases.

For those who want to follow an object, the Parliamentary Activities section proposes votes, the CN Voting Database, the xls file to download, the Official Bulletin and explanations regarding the Bulletin. Curia Vista is accompanied by advanced research, a page explaining it and responses to parliamentary speeches. The menu also separates sessions, previous sessions, and preview session overviews.

Finally, the site preserves an institutional memory: archive of the groups, presidents of the groups since 1917, former parliamentary groups, presidents of the Chambers, retrospectives of the legislatures and elections of the National Council, the Council of States, the Federal Council and the Chancellor. For the financial side, Finance preparation, Quote procedure, financial management tools, additional credits and PICF are listed. Anyone who wants to combine this consultation with a personal check can open the dichiarazione delle imposte.

Operational details

How to read the portal

The available material does not present a single decision involving amounts, deadlines or a specific regulatory change. Instead, it presents a framework for reconstructing the activity of the Federal Assembly: the question is linked to the relevant item, vote, session, committee or archive. For a national reader, this distinction helps them immediately choose the correct section.

A path for every question

The first path starts with Curia Vista when looking for an item or a response to a parliamentary intervention. Advanced search is used to narrow the search; the Curia Vista explained page instead provides guidance on the tool. If the interest concerns the outcome of a vote, the National Council voting database and the xls file represent a separate step. The Official Bulletin adds the explanations dedicated to the document.

For finances, the menu places on an equal footing the Budget procedure, financial management tools, types of credit and spending limit, supplementary credits and the Budget with integrated task and financial plan, also referred to as PICF. The reader can therefore go through the entries one at a time, without attributing to the portal figures or decisions that are not reported in the excerpt.

The international dimension is also organized by routes: EFTA/EU, NATO PA, OECD PD and the other delegations present activities, calendars or legal bases according to the available sections. When parliamentary reading is supplemented by a personal check of daily expenses, costo della vita in Svizzera can also be consulted.

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Key points

From search to document

Using the portal without getting lost requires a simple sequence. The first step is to determine whether you are looking for a body, an item, a vote, a session or a historical element. This distinction leads to the pages for the Chambers, Curia Vista, votes, sessions or the archive.

Four practical steps

1. Start in the institutional area. For a search concerning the Chambers, you can consult the pages for the National Council, the Council of States or the plenary Federal Assembly. The entries for members A–Z, members by canton, seating arrangements and changes help narrow the search to the organization specified in the portal. If the topic concerns a working body, the starting point becomes the Committees section.

2. Search for the item or intervention. Curia Vista offers an advanced search and an explanatory page. The same area includes responses to parliamentary interventions. It is useful to note the search term used, because the menu distinguishes items from sessions and votes.

3. Check the parliamentary document. The Official Bulletin is accompanied by explanations about the Bulletin. For votes in the National Council, the CN Voting Database and the downloadable xls file are available. These entries make it possible to distinguish between consulting the document and consulting the result indicated in the portal.

4. Broaden the review. Previous sessions, the overview of sessions in preview, the groups archive and retrospectives of legislative terms make it possible to return to materials from different periods. For international parliamentary relations, you can instead follow the sections dedicated to EFTA/EU, NATO PA, OECD PA and the parliaments of neighbouring states. The path thus remains anchored to the pages actually listed.

To complete your orientation with a personal review of economic topics, use the calcolatore stipendio.

Source: parlament.ch