dim, Fév 25th 2024
Major dossiers await the National Council and Council of States in the spring session. An overview:
The Federal Council is requesting CHF 2.6 billion from the Rail Infrastructure Fund for future rail infrastructure expansion. Among other things, the money is to be used for a new tunnel on the Lausanne-Geneva line and the Lötschberg base tunnel is to be widened to two tracks throughout.
In December, the Council of States increased the credits by CHF 350 million to take account of regional interests. The majority of the National Council’s preliminary committee now wants to follow the Council of States.
However, a minority wants to request that the additional CHF 100 million added by the Council of States to remedy the negative effects of the 2025 timetable in western Switzerland be waived.
The National Council will hold a further discussion on the voting age of 16. Its responsible committee is of the opinion that a proposal by Sibel Arslan (Greens/BS) for the introduction of active voting and electoral rights for 16 and 17-year-olds should be written off due to the largely negative feedback in the consultation process and that no bill should be drafted.
So far, however – still in the same composition as before the federal elections last fall – the full council has overruled her proposals, which is why Arslan’s initiative is still on the agenda. The majority of the responsible committee is of the opinion that the right to vote from the age of 16 conflicts with civil and criminal law obligations.
Children and young people are no longer allowed to see advertising for tobacco products, according to the tobacco advertising ban initiative approved at the ballot box in February 2022.
Parliament is now debating the implementation of the new constitutional article. The extent to which tobacco products may still be advertised in newspapers and magazines for adults is a contentious issue between the two chambers.
The National Council’s preliminary consultation committee is proposing that such advertisements be permitted in the inside section of subscription newspapers if 95% of them are read by adults. The Council of States, on the other hand, does not want to allow such an exception.
The National Council will now decide in the spring session. The association supporting the popular initiative criticized the decisions of the National Council’s preliminary committee as a “massive disregard for the will of the people”.
A fund for reconstruction in Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia two years ago, is under discussion in both chambers of parliament. The National Council has received a motion from its Finance Committee demanding that the amount made available be booked as an extraordinary item and therefore not be subject to the debt brake.
Furthermore, it should not be charged to international cooperation. A conservative minority opposes this fund. Franziska Roth (SP/SO) has tabled a similar demand in the Council of States. Neither motion mentions a specific amount for the fund. The Federal Council rejects both motions.
An extremely extensive bill awaits the National Council with the Customs Act. The responsible committee of the large chamber needed eight meetings to discuss the details of the bill; the bill with the proposals comprises no less than 490 pages.
The new customs law is intended to simplify procedures and tariffs and implement digitalization. Other elements include the organization of customs and its future powers. The merging of customs and border guards, encroachments on cantonal police sovereignty and data protection are likely to give rise to discussion.
In the debate on the introduction of the bill, which the National Council held last June, the spokesperson for the committee spoke of a mammoth project comprising 57 laws. The SVP, SP and FDP had supported the entry. In contrast, the Center Party, Greens and GLP wanted to send the “botched” bill back to the Federal Council.
The Council of States deals with better protection for minors from having to enter into a marriage. It is the first council to deal with a bill from the Federal Council to raise the age up to which actions for annulment can be brought against underage marriages.
Under the current law, marriages with minors can no longer be declared invalid once the person concerned has reached the age of 18. In future, this will be possible until the 25th birthday. Marriages with young people under the age of 16 are also to be generally prohibited. This is intended to put a stop to so-called “summer vacation marriages”.
Whether new rules are needed for the inheritance of an SME business within a family is controversial. The National Council has voted in favor of a bill to simplify the process, but the Council of States has not yet done so.
Its preliminary committee recommends by a narrow majority to stick with this “no” vote and not to adopt the bill. In their eyes, the bill is not necessary because in the vast majority of cases, companies would be inherited by mutual agreement.
The minority in favor sees the law as a safety net for cases in which testators have not arranged their own succession before death. If the Council of States does not support the bill for a second time, it will be off the table.
Rejected asylum seekers from Eritrea who cannot be returned to their home country should have to leave Switzerland for a third country. Following the National Council’s no vote, a new motion with this demand has been submitted to the Council of States by Petra Gössi (FDP/SZ).
It calls on the Federal Council to conclude a corresponding transit agreement. The model should be a transit agreement that the then Minister of Justice Ruth Metzler (center) signed in Senegal in 2003. The Federal Council would have to find a suitable third country. It rejects the motion.
The Council of States adopted a similar motion last June, but the National Council then rejected it by a narrow majority last December.
The Council of States is considering the question of whether young people should be able to apply for up to two weeks’ unpaid leave per year for voluntary work. It has received two motions from the SP and FDP parliamentary groups in the National Council calling for such a doubling of youth leave.
Dozens of members of the upper chamber support the request. The Federal Council agrees with the request. Since 1991, all employees and apprentices in Switzerland up to the age of 30 have been entitled to a maximum of five days’ unpaid leave per year, known as youth or educational leave for voluntary youth work.
Around three years after the ‘no’ vote in parliament, a new attempt is being made to introduce an e-ID, this time with a state solution. According to current plans, electronic proof of identity is to be offered from 2026. Use of the e-ID is to be voluntary and free of charge.
The Federal Council wants the infrastructure required to operate the E-ID to also be used by cantonal and municipal authorities as well as private individuals to issue electronic proof of identity. In a first attempt, the E-ID Act – with a private solution – failed at the ballot box in March 2021.
©Keystone/SDA
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