BERN - The autumn session that opened on 14 September with EU treaties and army funding at the top of the agenda ended on Friday with one file finished in the Senate, one revived, and one deliberately left open. The winter session runs from 30 November to 18 December.
Finished, for the upper house at least, is the stabilisation part of the EU package. Over four days and roughly 22 hours, senators approved every federal decree in Bilaterals III, from wage protection to Erasmus+ money, and attached a mandatory referendum with a double majority that the government did not want. The National Council takes up the package in December, with the electricity agreement following on a separate track.
Mercosur survives, the defence fund waits
The Senate's 35 to 7 vote to revive the Mercosur agreement, paired with CHF 517 million for farmers, sends that file back to the National Council, which rejected it in June. The defence fund survived its first reading too: senators kept CHF 24 billion, doubled the loan ceiling to CHF 12 billion and cut the attached VAT rise to 0.2 points. The larger chamber has yet to set its position.
Lex UBS is the winter fight
The bill known as Lex UBS was started but not finished. The Senate's decision to require 90 percent CET1 backing for foreign units now passes to the National Council, whose economic committee meets on 26 and 27 October and again on 23 and 24 November. A floor vote could follow in December. The bank, the government and the compromise camp are already repositioning; our Sunday outlook lays out the numbers.
The session's last hours were overtaken by news from the government bench: Guy Parmelin announced his resignation for the end of the year. The election of his successor on 9 December will now hang over the winter sitting.