📋 Tender Overview
{
detected_language: French,
translated_text: The Commission for Economic Affairs and Taxation of the Council of States (CER-E) clearly supports the inclusion in the law of a public liquidity guarantee mechanism for systemically important banks. It wishes to limit the obligation to pay a flat fee in advance to benefit from this guarantee to systemically important banks whose foreign activities represent a substantial part of their overall activities. The two councils had suspended the examination of project 23.062, which aims to establish a public liquidity backstop (PLB) for systemically important banks, as they wanted to evaluate this instrument in the general context of regulation. The commission has now been able to resume its examination in the context of the capital issue discussed in the Council of States (26.027). In October 2023, the CER-E had already unanimously decided to take up this matter (press release from the CER-E of October 17, 2023). During the article-by-article discussion, the commission particularly considered the relevance of banks compensating for the assistance provided by the state in the form of liquidity. A majority believes that this support should be compensated and supports, like the Federal Council, a flat fee. However, it proposes to make modifications to the Federal Councils project: by 7 votes to 5, it requests that the collection of a flat fee be limited to systemically important banks whose foreign activities represent a substantial part of their overall activities. Today, this criterion would only apply to UBS. The commission justifies its proposal by stating that foreign activities are significantly riskier than those conducted in Switzerland. It also believes that the calculation methods for the flat fee need to be adapted: debt instruments intended to absorb losses in the presence of insolvency measures, collateral prepared with foreign central banks, as well as other long-term financing options such as secured bonds and mortgage bond issues should be included in the calculation base for the flat fee. By 6 votes to 5 and 1 abstention, the commission also wants to enshrine in law a maximum calculation rate of one basis point instead of addressing this aspect at the ordinance level. By 8 votes to 4, the commission voted in favor of a modified flat fee in this manner. A minority opposes this because the law does not grant the concerned banks the right to benefit from public liquidity support. The commission approves the Federal Councils project on other points and adopted the project by 9 votes to 0 and 3 abstentions in the overall vote. The commission supports the proposed cost-based rent model in the public utility housing sector. After a brief discussion, the commission decided, by 10 votes to 0 and 2 abstentions, to take up the project to amend the housing law (25.065). It is satisfied with the precision brought by the National Council to art. 38 regarding the principles governing the cost-based rent model. It also approved without opposition all other decisions of the National Council and adopted the project by 10 votes to 0 and 2 abstentions in the overall vote. This matter is thus ready to be examined during the autumn session. Telework: the project is ready to be addressed in the winter session. After intense discussions and the analysis of in-depth supplementary reports, particularly on Sunday work (cf. public documents from the commissions), the CER-E has concluded the examination of item 16.484 (Relaxing the conditions governing telework). It wishes to establish regulations that take into account current, more flexible work models while providing sufficient protection to employees who perform part of their work remotely. Its proposals sometimes diverge significantly from the decisions of the National Council: the commission wants to remove the right to disconnect from the project (art. 8a of the labor law [LTr]) by 8 votes to 3 and 0 abstentions, as this right applies even if it is not explicitly stated in the law. Regarding Sunday work, the commission has conducted in-depth analyses but now proposes, in a spirit of compromise, to simply remove the corresponding provision (art. 28e LTr) from the project, by 9 votes to 2 and 0 abstention. It is only thanks to the casting vote of its president that the commission is in favor of telework regulations included in the code of obligations; by 10 votes to 1 and 0 abstentions, it has clearly expressed its support for regulations in line with the Federal Councils opinion and not in favor of a separate chapter dedicated to telework contracts, as decided by the National Council. Regarding other contentious points, the commission proposes to align with the National Councils opinion: the scope of application (art. 28a LTr) should not be restricted further than decided by the National Council (10 votes to 2 and 0 abstentions), and the duration of daily rest (art. 28d LTr) should be able to be shortened as the project provides since the time needed to travel between home and the workplace disappears on days when the worker performs telework. All the mentioned provisions have led to minority proposals. In the overall vote, the commission adopted the project by 7 votes to 2 and 3 abstentions. The Council of States will examine this matter in the winter session. Furthermore, the commission examined motion 24.3779 (More flexibility and individual responsibility for high-income workers) and proposes to its council to adopt it by 7 votes to 3 and 2 abstentions. The majority advocates for labor market liberalization, while the minority believes that the salary mentioned in the motion is not a sufficient criterion and is also too low. Fluctuation reserve for Swiss wines. Following the submission of an initiative by the CER-N (22.405), the National Council voted, during the autumn session, in favor of introducing a voluntary AOC wine reserve, which should allow producers to better smooth out fluctuations in
