Stenographic Records of National Council Sittings – Legal Framework

Stenographic records are taken of public sittings of the National Council and published on the internet. They reflect the deliberations in extenso and include not only a verbatim report of the debates, but, for example, also the wording of amendments and motions made in the course of the debates. Interruptions during speeches, applause, the beginnings and ends of speeches, changes of chairperson and similar are also recorded. The stenographic records therefore provide a complete documentation of the proceedings.

The purpose of publishing stenographic records is to make parliamentary processes transparent to the general public and to permit to read up on the proceedings.

Stenographic records are also taken of parliamentary inquiries of the National Council. So-called summary records are taken of the deliberations of the Main Committee on matters concerning the European Union and of the EU sub-committee of the Main Committee; these are published in Annex IV and Annex V to the Stenographic Records of the National Council.

In exceptional cases, the committee chairpersons may request the president of the National Council to have summary records of deliberations taken by the stenographers. The committee may then decide to have these summary records published. Unless such a decision is taken, summary records are not accessible to the general public.

§ 52 GOG-NR, § 31c (6) GOG-NR, § 39 (2) GOG-NR