Federal Act
on the Statutory Principles
for Federal Council Ordinances on
Combating the COVID-19 Epidemic

¹ This Act regulates special powers of the Federal Council to combat the COVID-19 epidemic and to respond to the effects of the measures to combat the disease on society, the economy and the public sector.

² The Federal Council shall use these powers only to the extent that they are required to respond to the COVID-19 epidemic. In particular, it shall not use these powers if the same objective can be achieved using regular or emergency legislative procedures.

^2bis The Federal Council shall be guided by the principles of subsidiarity, efficacy and proportionality. It shall aim for the shortest and least severe restriction of economic and social life possible, by ensuring that the Confederation and the cantons exhaust all the options provided by precautionary measures, testing and vaccination strategies and contact tracing beforehand.⁴

³ It shall consult the cantonal governments and the umbrella organisations for the social partners when drawing up measures that relate to their responsibilities.⁵

⁴ It shall inform Parliament regularly, in good time and comprehensively about the implementation of this Act. It shall consult the relevant committees beforehand about planned ordinances and amendments to ordinances.

⁵ In emergency cases the Federal Council shall inform the presidents of the relevant committees. They shall inform their committees without delay.

⁶ When ordering measures, the Federal Council and the cantons shall be guided by any available data, comparable with regard to time and the regions concerned, that indicate that the healthcare system is in danger of becoming overburdened, the mortality rate is increasing or the disease is becoming more virulent.

¹ The Federal Council may require manufacturers, distributors, laboratories, healthcare facilities and other cantonal facilities to report their stocks of therapeutic products, protective equipment and other medical goods required for healthcare provision (essential medical goods).

² In order to guarantee a sufficient supply of essential medical goods for the public, it may:

a.

provide for exceptions to the provisions on the import of essential medical goods;

b.

provide for exceptions to the requirement of authorisation for activities in connection with essential medical goods or adapt the licensing requirements;

c.

provide for exceptions to the requirement of authorisation for medicinal products or adapt the authorisation requirements or authorisation procedure;

d.

provide for exceptions to the provisions on the conformity assessment of medical devices and the provisions on the conformity assessment procedure and the placing on the market of protective equipment;

e.⁹

procure essential medical goods or have them manufactured itself; in this case, it shall regulate the funding of procurement or manufacture and the repayment of the costs by the cantons and facilities to which the goods are supplied;

f.

provide for the allocation, delivery and distribution of essential medical goods;

g.

provide for the direct marketing of essential medical goods;

h. and i. ...

³ It shall take the measures under paragraph 2 letters e and f only if supplies cannot be guaranteed by the cantons and the private sector.¹⁰

⁴ ...

^4bis In order to support the health care services placed under stress by the COVID-19 crisis, the cantons shall finance the capacity reserves required to cope with peaks in activity. The cantons shall define the required capacities in consultation with the Confederation.¹¹

^4ter The Federal Council may require the cantons to report their capacities in the healthcare sector, in particular total numbers and the occupancy of hospital beds that are intended for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.¹²

⁵ and ⁶ ...

^6bis ...¹³

⁷ The Confederation shall take the following measures in close consultation with the cantons:

a.-c.

...

d.¹⁴

...

e.

...

¹ The Federal Council may order measures to protect employees at high risk. It may in particular impose obligations on employers related to this, in particular the obligation to allow employees at high risk to carry out their work duties from home or to do equivalent alternative work.¹⁸

^2-4 ...

The Federal Council may introduce derogations from the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act of 16 December 2005²¹ (FNIA) and from the Asylum Act of 26 June 1998²² (AsylA) on:

a.

restricting the entry of foreign nationals and their admission to stay in Switzerland, with the exception of family reunification in accordance with Articles 42-45 FNIA and the entry into Switzerland of unmarried partners and their children;

b.

extending statutory deadlines for:

1.

family reunification (Art. 47 FNIA),

2.

the expiry of short stay, residence and permanent residence permits (Art. 61 FNIA),

3.

the updating of biometric data in identification documents (Art. 59b and 102a FNIA),

4.

departure (Art. 45 para. 2 AsylA and Art. 64d FNIA),

5.

the expiry of asylum (Art. 64 AsylA),

6.

the expiry of temporary admission (Art. 84 para. 4 FNIA);

c.

accommodating asylum seekers in federal centres and conducting asylum and removal procedures; in doing so it shall take appropriate account of the need to protect the health of the persons concerned.

In relation to the closure of borders, the Federal Council shall wherever possible take the measures required to guarantee the freedom to travel of cross-border commuters and residents who have special ties to the border region.

¹ The Federal Council shall stipulate the requirements for certifying that a person has received a COVID-19 vaccination or has recovered from COVID-19 or for certifying the result of a test for COVID-19.

² The certificate shall be issued in response to an application.

³ The certificate must be personal, forgery-proof, verifiable while complying with data protection requirements and designed so that only decentralised or local verification of its authenticity and validity is possible and, if possible, so that it can be used when entering or leaving other countries.²⁵

⁴ The Federal Council may regulate who is to pay the cost of the certificate.

⁵ The Confederation may provide the cantons and third parties with a system for issuing certificates.

The Federal Council may, insofar as it may be required in order to prevent mass bankruptcies and to stabilise the Swiss economy and society, issue provisions that derogate from the Federal Act of 11 April 1889²⁹ on Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy (DEBA) and from the Swiss Code of Obligations³⁰ on:

a. and b.³¹ ...

c.³²

the obligations to report in the case of a loss of capital and over-indebtedness.

¹ The responsible federal and cantonal offices, the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) and the cantonal audit authorities may process and disclose to each other personal data, including data about administrative or criminal proceedings and sanctions, and information required to administer, supervise and process the financial assistance under Article 12 and to prevent, combat and prosecute abuse. In this context, the SFAO may systematically use OASI numbers pursuant to Article 50c of the Federal Act of 20 December 1946³⁹ on Old-Age and Survivors' Insurance.

² The following entities and persons are obliged to provide the competent cantonal offices, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and third parties designated by SECO on request with the personal data and information that they require to administer, supervise and process the financial assistance under Article 12 and to prevent, combat and prosecute abuse:⁴⁰

a.

the competent federal and cantonal public offices;

b.

the businesses that claim or receive financial assistance, their auditors and the persons and businesses they engage to carry out accounting and fiduciary activities.

³ The competent federal and cantonal public offices are obliged, on request, to provide the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs and the SFAO with the personal data and information that they require to fulfil their controlling, accounting and supervisory tasks.

⁴ Neither official secrecy nor the confidentiality of bank customer, tax, statistical or audit data may be invoked in order to prevent the processing or disclosure of personal data and information pursuant to this Article.

^1-4 ...

⁵ ...⁴²

⁶ and ⁷ ...

⁸ If the conditions specified in paragraph 6 letter a or d or the duty in the first sentence of paragraph 7 are not complied with, the contributions may be reclaimed in accordance with the Subsidies Act of 5 October 1990⁴³. If the conditions specified in paragraph 6 letter b or c are not complied with, the club concerned must repay the contributions that exceed 50 per cent of the lost ticket revenues in accordance with paragraph 4.⁴⁴

⁹ ...⁴⁵

¹ The Federal Council may issue provisions in derogation from the Unemployment Insurance Act of 25 June 1982⁵⁰ (UIA) on:

a.⁵¹

the right to and payment of the short-time work compensation for vocational trainers who supervise apprentices;

b.⁵²

the non-consideration of accounting periods from 1 March 2020 in which the person concerned was unable to work for more than 85 per cent of normal working hours (Art. 35 para. 1^bis UIA);

c.⁵³

the extension of the period for claiming payments and of the contribution period for insured persons who between 1 March 2020 and 31 August 2020 were entitled to claim a maximum of 120 additional daily allowance payments;

d.⁵⁴

...

e.⁵⁵

...

f. and g.⁵⁶

...

h.⁵⁷

...

² All persons entitled to claim under the UIA shall receive a maximum of 66 additional daily allowance payments for March, April and May 2021. The current right to the maximum number of daily allowances under Article 27 UIA shall not be reduced thereby.⁵⁸

³ For insured persons who are entitled to additional daily allowance payments under paragraph 2, the timeframe for claiming payment shall be extended for as long as the additional daily allowance is paid. The timeframe for the contribution period shall be extended by the same duration if required.⁵⁹

¹ The Federal Council shall regulate the implementation of the measures under this Act.

² The Federal Council shall regulate the accounting, management and implementation of cantonal claims to federal contributions towards hardship measures for the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 in accordance with Article 12.⁶⁶

...⁶⁸

¹ This Act is declared to be urgent (Art. 165 para. 1 Federal Constitution). It is subject to an optional referendum (Art. 141 para. 1 let. b BV).

² It comes into force subject to the reservation of paragraph 3 on 26 September 2020 and applies subject to the reservation of paragraphs 4 and 5 until 31 December 2021.

³ Article 15 comes into force with retrospective effect on 17 September 2020.

⁴ Articles 1 and 17 letters a-c apply until 31 December 2022.

⁵ Article 15 applies until 30 June 2021.

⁶ The term of application of Article 1 pursuant to paragraph 4 is extended until 31 December 2031.⁶⁹

⁷ The term of application of Article 17 letters a and c pursuant to paragraph 4 is extended until 31 December 2023.⁷⁰

⁸ The term of application of Article 9 letter c is extended until 31 December 2031.⁷¹

⁹ In derogation from paragraph 2, Article 17 letter e comes into force with retrospective effect on 1 September 2020 and applies until 31 December 2021.⁷²

¹⁰ The term of application of Article 15 in accordance with paragraph 5 is extended until 31 December 2021.⁷³

¹¹ The term of application of Article 15 in accordance with paragraph 10 is extended until 31 December 2022.⁷⁴