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Relations Between Parliament and Government
Title VII Relations Between Parliament and Government
Article 108: Government and Parliament
1. Members of the Government shall have access to the Parliament and its commissions. They shall be heard at the demand of a member of Parliament, of a commission, or at their own request.
2. They can be assisted by colleagues.
3. In the case of the absence of a titled Minister, his intermediary shall replace him.
Article 109: State of Emergency and Siege
1. When it appears that an imminent peril resulting in grave results to public order or in the case of events presenting themselves, by their nature and their gravity, the character of the public calamity or national disaster, the President of the Republic may decree in the Council of Ministers a state of emergency over a part or the whole of the national territory.
2. When it appears an imminent peril resulting either from a menace of foreign character, or an insurrection of the Armed Forces, or grave events occurred despite the state of emergency, the President of the Republic may declare in the Council of Ministers a state of siege.
3. In both cases, the Parliament shall meet by right if it is not in session in order to appreciate the legality of the decision of the President of the Republic.
4. The extension of the state of siege or the state of emergency for more than fifteen days shall only be authorized by the Parliament.
5. The law shall determine the manner of application of the present article.
Article 110: Legislation Procedure
1. The initiation of legislation belongs concurrently to the Government and to the members of Parliament.
2. Bills shall be deliberated in the Council of Ministers after the advice of the Supreme Court and filed with the office of one of the other Houses by the Prime Minister.
3. Budgetary acts shall be submitted first to the National Assembly.
4. Propositions of law which are stopped by Parliament shall be, before deliberation and vote, addressed for information to the Government.
Article 111: Budgetary Impact Laws
Propositions and amendments filed by the members of Parliament shall not be acceptable when the adoption would have in consequence either a diminution of the public resources, or the creation or aggravation of a public obligation, at least when they are not accompanied by a proposition for the augmentation of revenues or corresponding economizing.
Article 112: Inconceivability of Bills
1. Bills, propositions, and amendments which are not of the domain of the law are not receivable.
2. Inconceivability shall be pronounced by the President of the interested House after deliberation of the office.
3. In the case of contestant on Paragraph (1), the Constitutional Council, seated by the President or the interested House, or by the Government shall decree within a period of eight days.
Article 113: Discussion, Vote
The discussion of bills shall occur, before the convened House, upon the text presented by the Government. One House convened to consider a text passed by the other House shall vote upon the text transmitted to it.
Article 114: Special and Permanent Commissions
1. Bills and propositions of law shall be at the demand of the Government or the House seated to review it, sent for examination to commissions specially designated for this purpose.
2. Bills and propositions of law for which such a demand has not been made shall be sent to one of the Permanent Commissions of which the number shall be determined by the Internal Regulations of each House.
Article 115: Right of Amendment
The members of Parliament and the Government shall have the right of amendment.
Article 116: Joint Commission, Definitive Decree
1. Every bill or proposition of law shall be examined successively in both Houses with a view of adoption of an identical text.
2. When, followed by a disagreement between the two Houses, a bill or proposition of law cannot be adopted after a reading by each House, the Prime Minister shall have the ability to provoke the reunion of a joint commission charged with proposing a text on the provisions remaining in discussion.
3. The text elaborated upon by the Joint Commission may be submitted by the Government for approval of both Houses.
4. If the Joint Commission cannot arrive at the adoption of a common text, the Government may after a new reading by the National Assembly and by the Senate, demand of the National Assembly a definitive decree.
5. In this case, the National Assembly may take up either the text elaborated by the Joint Commission, or the last text passed by it, modified, if such be the case, by one or several amendments adopted by the Senate.
Article 117: Organic Laws
1. Laws to which the Constitution gives the character of organic laws, except the budgetary act, shall be voted and modified in the following conditions:
- The bill or proposition shall only be submitted to deliberation and vote of the first House after the expiration of a period of fifteen days after its filing.
- The procedure of Article 116 shall be applicable. At all times lacking agreement between the two Houses, the text shall only be adopted by the National Assembly at its last reading by an absolute majority of its members.
- Organic laws relative to the Senate shall be passed in the same terms by both Houses.
2. Organic laws shall only be promulgated after a declaration by the Constitutional Council of their conformity to the Constitution.
Article 118: Budgetary Act
1. The budgetary act for the year comprising the report and explicative annexes shall be filed and distributed 15 Oct at the latest of the year which proceeds the year of execution of the budget. It shall be immediately returned to a Parliamentary Commission.
2. The National Assembly shall decide upon the first reading within a period of fifteen days after the filing of the budgetary act.
3. If the National Assembly has not announced a vote in the first reading upon the act within the period here stated, the Government shall obligate the Senate to an amended initial text. The Senate shall decide within a period of fifteen days on the first reading.
4. If the Senate does not decide in the period here stated, the National Assembly shall be obligated with the budgetary act. This law shall only contain strictly financial provisions.
5. If after the last reading of the Senate the budgetary act has not been adopted, the President of the Republic shall convene the Parliament in extraordinary session.
6. The budgetary act shall be passed 31 Dec at the latest.
Article 119: Assistance of Comptroller's Office
1. An organic law shall regulate the mode of presentation of the budget. The Parliament shall regulate the accounts of the State. It shall be assisted in this task by the Comptroller's Office.
2. The National Assembly can charge the Comptroller's Office with all inquiries and studies coinciding with the execution of the public receipts and expenses or with the administration of the treasury.
Article 120: Regulatory Bill
The regulatory bill shall be filed and distributed at the latest at the end of the year that follows the year of execution of the budget.
Article 121: Agenda, Urgency
1. The agenda of each House shall comprise the bills and propositions in the order of their filing with the Office of the House so charged.
2. At all times, the bills and propositions of law recognized as urgent may be examined in priority.
Article 122: Declaration of Policy, Motion of Censure
1. The Prime Minister, after the deliberation of the Council of Ministers, shall engage before the National Assembly the responsibility of the Government on its program or eventually upon a declaration of general policy.
2. The National Assembly shall put in question the responsibility of the Government by the passage of a motion of censure. Such a motion shall only be receivable if it is signed by a tenth of the members of the National Assembly. The passage shall only take place forty eight hours after its filing. Only the favorable votes to the motion shall be counted which can only be adopted by an absolute majority of the members composing the Assembly. If the motion of censure is rejected, these signatories shall not propose a new one in the course of the same session, except in the case prescribed in the above article.
3. The Prime Minister can, after deliberation of the Council of Ministers, engage the responsibility of the Government before the National Assembly upon the passage of a text. In this case, this text shall be considered as adopted; except if a motion of censure, filed in the twenty four hours which follow, is passed in the conditions prescribed in the preceding paragraph.
Article 123: Resignation of Government
When the National Assembly has adopted a motion of censure or when it disapproves of the program or a declaration of general policy of the Government, the Prime Minister shall remit to the President of the Republic the resignation of the Government.
Article 124: Delay for Motion of Censure
The closure of ordinary and extraordinary sessions shall be by right delayed in order to permit, if need be, the application of the provisions of Article 122.
Article 125: Interpretations
1. The Government shall be obligated to furnish to Parliament all explanations which are demanded of it on its administration and its activities.
2. The means of information and control of Parliament over the Government shall be:
- interpretation,
- written question,
- oral question,
- commission of inquiry,
- motion of censure, and
- audition in commission.
3. These means shall be exercised in the conditions determined by the Interior Regulation of each House.
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