The Federal Assembly (German: Bundesversammlung, French: Assemble fdrale, Italian: Assemblea federale, Romansh: Assamblea federala), is Switzerland's

federal parliament. It meets in Bern in the Federal Palace. The Federal Assembly is bicameral, being composed of the 200-seat National Council and the 46-seat Council of States. The houses have identical powers. Members of both houses represent the cantons, but, whereas seats in the National Council are distributed in proportion to population, each canton has two seats in the Council of States, except the six 'half-cantons' which have one seat each. Both are elected in full once every four years, with the last election being held in 2007. The Federal Assembly possesses the federal government's legislative power, along with the separate constitutional right of citizen's initiative. For a law to pass, it must be passed by both houses. The Federal Assembly may come together as a United Federal Assembly in certain circumstances, including to elect the Federal Council, the Federal Chancellor, a General (Swiss generals are only selected in times of great national danger), or federal judges.The Federal Assembly is made up of two chambers: the National Council, with 200 seats the Council of States, with 46 councellors. Seats in the National Council are allocated to the cantons proportionally, based on population. In the Council of States, every canton has two seats (except for the former "half-cantons", which have one seat each). [edit]United Federal Assembly On occasions the two houses sit jointly as the "United Federal Assembly" (German: Vereinigte Bundesversammlung, French: Assemble fdrale, Chambres runies, Italian: Assemblea federale plenaria). This is done to: elect members of the Federal Council, the Federal Chancellor, the General and federal judges; arbitrate in the event of conflicts between federal authorities; issue pardons; or listen to special announcementsGroups

Switzerland

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Switzerland Constitution[show] Federal Council[show] Federal Assembly[show] Elections[show] Federal courts[show] Foreign relations[show] Subdivisions[show] Other countries Atlas Politics portal view talk edit Parties can cooperate in groups, allowing smaller parties access to rights as part of a caucus. These groups must have at least five members and must be maintained across both chambers.[1] Being a member of a formal group gives members the right to sit on committees, and those that aren't members can't speak in most debates. Each group receives a fixed allowance of [clarification needed]112,000, whilst each member of a group also receives an additional 20,800 a year each.[1] Since March 2009, there have been six groups in the Federal Assembly. The latest group to form was the Conservative Democratic Party which split off the Swiss People's Party in 2008. The Christian Democrats/EPP/glp Group (CEg) was formed after the 2007 elections, out of the former Christian Deocratic (C) and EPP (E) groups. The current FTP/Liberal group (RL) was formed in 2003 out of the former FDP (R) and Liberal (L) groups; since the 2009 fusion of the Free Democrati and Liberal Parties, RL is once again a single-party group.