Commentaries: Art. 2

The National Council and the Council of States shall convene regularly for ordinary sessions.
Either council may decide to convene special sessions if the ordinary sessions are not sufficient to deal with the volume of business.
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:
1. drafts by the Federal Council or of a Federal Assembly committee of a Federal Assembly enactment;
2. identical motions that have been submitted in both councils;
3. elections;
4. declarations by the Federal Council or identical drafts submitted in both councils for declarations by the National Council and the Council of States.¹
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 .²
The extraordinary session shall be held immediately if:
An ordinary or an extraordinary session is normally held in both councils in the same calendar week.³

Amended by No I of the FA of 21 June 2013 (Improvements in the Organisation and Procedures of Parliament), in force since 25 Nov. 2013 (AS 2013 3687;BBl 2011 6793,6829). ↩
Inserted by No I of the FA of 17 March 2023 (Improvements in the Organisation and Procedures of Parliament, Especially in Crisis Situations), in force since 4 Dec. 2023 (AS 2023 483;BBl 2022 301,433). ↩
Inserted by No I of the FA of 21 June 2013 (Improvements in the Organisation and Procedures of Parliament), in force since 25 Nov. 2013 (AS 2013 3687;BBl 2011 6793,6829). ↩

Art. 2