Committees

Kinds of Committees

• Expert Committees

  At the beginning of each legislative period the National Council elects one expert committee for each major field of interest, such as the Committee on Family Affairs, Constitutional Committee, Foreign Policy Committee or Health Committee. In addition, the National Council may at any time set up special committees for the preliminary deliberation on individual items of business of major importance.

  This division of labour enables Members to acquire special expertise in the areas covered by the committees of which they are members and to act as opinion leaders on the matters in hand in their respective parliamentary groups.

• Committees with Specific Remits

  A second group of committees devote themselves to specific parliamentary tasks. Examples are the Incompatibility Committee, the Immunity Committee or the Main Committee. The latter, and its Sub-Committee especially set up for this purpose, are in charge of the National Council’s right of participation in European Union affairs. Two standing sub-committees of the Budget Committee play an important role in the National Council’s participation in the European Stability Mechanism (“Euro rescue package“). And several committees or standing sub-committees monitor the activities of the Government.

• Committee Motions

  Committees may of their own accord move bills or resolutions connected with issues within their remit, to be deliberated by the Plenary.

• Sub-Committees

  To engage in preliminary deliberations on particularly extensive or difficult issues, committees may set up sub-committees, which will normally meet in camera to warrant confidentiality. They can also call in experts to advise them.

• Investigating Committees

  To probe into matters involving the political responsibility of members of the Federal Government and certain activities of the federal administrative authorities, the National Council can set up investigating committees. It has to do so if either the plenary so decides by majority vote or a quarter of the Members so demand. The idea behind these investigating committees is the democratic concept of checks and balances. The National Council should be in a position to check on the work of the Government. The subject to be investigated must be a specific event or process  that occurred under the executive authority of the Federal Government and has been concluded in the past. Procedure in investigating committees is set out in special Rules of Procedure for Parliamentary Investigating Committees.

• Special Committee under the Financial Constitution Act

  There is also a special committee termed Standing Joint Committee under Section 9 of the Financial Constitution Act. It is a joint committee formed by Members of both the National Council and the Federal Council. It mediates in conflicts between the Federal Government and a Provincial Diet on the admissibility of new provincial or local taxes and rates.