Swiss parliament to discuss CO2 Act, railway expansion and tobacco ads
Expansion of the railway infrastructure, revision of the CO2 Act, aid in Ukraine and a ban on tobacco advertising: Swiss parliamentarians are discussing weighty bills in the spring session, which starts on Monday.
The revision of the CO2 Act for the period from 2025 will enter its second round at the end of February. The bill is intended to help Switzerland achieve the 2050 net-zero target. The Senate will once again consider the proposals, and its committee wants to go less far with the measures than the House of Representatives. The bill could be finalised during the current session.
The House of Representatives will tackle the Tobacco Products Act in the first week of the session. In future, children and adolescents will no longer be allowed to see advertising for tobacco products. This was written into the constitution by voters with the initiative to ban tobacco advertising. The extent to which tobacco advertising should be banned from newspapers and magazines for adults is a contentious issue between the chambers.
+ Switzerland to implement tobacco advertising restrictions
Once again on the agenda of the House of Representatives is the question of whether 16- and 17-year-olds should be allowed to vote. Its preliminary committee has wanted to write off the proposal for some time but has so far been overruled by the chamber. A further debate is therefore planned for the first week.
The CHF2.6 billion ($2.95 billion) for the expansion of the railway infrastructure is relatively uncontroversial. The money is to be taken from the railway infrastructure fund. The programme focuses on a nine-kilometre tunnel on the Geneva-Lausanne line and the continuous double-track expansion of the Lötschberg base tunnel.
The Senate has slightly extended the list of projects in consideration of the regions and increased the amounts of money accordingly. The majority of the House of Representatives’ preliminary committee wants to follow suit. However, a minority wants to cancel CHF100 million for western Switzerland.
Ukraine motions
Motions calling for the creation of a fund for reconstruction in war-ravaged Ukraine are on the agenda in both chambers. No specific amount of money is mentioned. However, they are calling for the amount required for the aid to be recognised as an extraordinary item so that it is not covered by the debt brake.
The Senate also has to decide on five motions from the House of Representatives that demand a basis in international law for reparations payments from Russian state assets to Ukraine. The government is in favour of this request.
The totally revised Customs Act, which the House of Representatives will discuss in detail in the middle week of the session, is a weighty bill in terms of paperwork alone. It has already voted in favour of the bill, against the wishes of its preliminary committee. A minority of the Swiss People’s Party, Social Democratic Party and Radical-Liberal Party won through.
The document containing the committee’s motions and minority motions is no less than 490 pages. The new Customs Act is intended to simplify procedures and tariffs and regulate the organisation of customs and its future powers. The merging of customs and border guards is likely to be a talking point.
The spring session begins on Monday and lasts until March 15. The House of Representatives has reserved around 77 hours for its debates, the Senate 57. No night sessions are planned in the House of Representatives, while the Senate will hold an evening session on the Monday of the second week. Further afternoon sessions have not yet been scheduled in the Senate.
Translated from German by DeepL/ts
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