Of the Relations Between the Government and the Parliament

The National Assembly votes the law in last resort.

It controls the action of the Government.

The Senate receives the bills and the proposals of law for deliberation.

The Senate gives its opinion obligatorily before the vote by the National Assembly on any bill or proposal of constitutional law, of all the texts relative to the territorial organization of the Republic and of the bill of the law of finance. In all cases, the opinion of the Senate is considered as given if it is not pronounced within the fifteen (15) days of its referral to [the matter] or eight (08) days in case of procedure of urgency.

The National Assembly has control over its agenda. It informs the Government of it.

The inscription, by priority, in the agenda of the National Assembly, of a bill or a proposal of law or of a declaration of general policy, is of right if the Government makes demand for it.

The initiative of laws belongs concurrently to the deputies and to the Government.

The law establishes the rules concerning:

citizenship, the civic rights and the exercise of the public freedoms;

the system of establishment of the list of paid and unpaid holidays;

the constraints raised by the necessities of the National Defense;

nationality, the status and the capacity of persons, the matrimonial regimes, inheritance and gifts;

the procedure following which customs are declared and harmonized with the fundamental principles of the Constitution;

the determination of crimes and offenses as well as the penalties applicable to them, the criminal procedure, [and] amnesty;

the organization of the judicial and administrative tribunals and the procedure before these jurisdictions, the status of the magistrates, of the ministerial officers and of the auxiliaries of justice;

the determination of the financial competences of the constitutional and administrative authorities;

the base, the rates and the modalities of collection of the taxes of all natures;

the regulation of the issuance of the currency;

the electoral regimes of the National Assembly and of the Local Assemblies;

the remuneration of the public functions;

the nationalization of enterprises and the transfer of ownership of enterprises of the public sector to the private sector;

the creation of categories of public establishments;

health and population;

the state of siege and the state of urgency;

the protection and the promotion of the environment and the conservation of the natural resources;

the creation, the expansion and the declassification of the national parks, [and] of the animal reserves and of the designated forests;

the drafting, the execution and the supervision of national plans and programs of development;

the protection of the freedom of the press and the access to information;

the status of the opposition.

the general organization of the Administration;

the general status of the Public Function;

the organization of the National Defense;

honorary distinctions;

teaching and Scientific Research;

the integration of national cultural values;

the regime of property, of real rights and of the civil and commercial obligations;

the right to work, the syndical right and of social institutions;

the alienation and the management of the domain of the State;

the penitentiary regime;

insurance and saving;

the economic regime;

the organization of production;

the regimes of transport and of communications;

the free administration of the territorial collectivities, their competences and their resources;

the provisions of this article may be made precise and completed by an organic law.

The matters other than those which are of the domain of the law have a regulatory character.

The Government can, for the execution of its programs, demand of the National Assembly, the authorization to take by ordinances, during a limited time period, the measures that are normally of the domain of the law.

These ordinances are taken in the Council of Ministers after the opinion of the Constitutional Court. They enter into force on their publication, but become lapsed if the bill of law of ratification is not deposited with the National Assembly before the date established by the enabling law.

At the expiration of the time period defined in the enabling law, these ordinances may only be modified by the law, in that which concerns their provisions which arise in the legislative domain.

The proposals and the bills of law are deposited with the bureau of the National Assembly which sends them for examination to specialized commissions of which the composition and the attributions are established by the internal regulations of the National Assembly.

The proposals of laws are, at least eight (8) days before deliberation and vote, notified for information to the Government.

The bills of law are deliberated in the Council of Ministers.

The deputies and the Government have the right of amendment.

The proposals and amendments formulated by the deputies are not receivable when their adoption would have as a consequence, either a diminution of public resources, or the creation or the increase of a public expense, unless these proposals or amendments should be accompanied by proposals of compensatory receipts.

The National Assembly votes the bills of the law of finance within the conditions provided for by an organic law.

The provisions of the bill may be brought into force by ordinance if the Assembly does not decide within a time period of forty-five (45) days following the deposit of the bill and if the budgetary year is coming to [its] expiration. In this case, the Government demands the convocation of an extraordinary session for the ratification.

If the bill of the law of finance has not been deposited in a timely fashion to be voted and promulgated before the debut of the financial year, the Prime Minister demands of urgency, of the Assembly, the authorization to continue the budget of the previous year by provisional twelfths.

The proposals or bills of organic laws are submitted to the deliberation and to the vote of the National Assembly at the expiration of a time period of fifteen (15) days after their deposit.

The organic laws may only be promulgated after the declaration by the Constitutional Court of their conformity with the Constitution.

The declaration of war is authorized by the National Assembly.

The state of siege [or] the state of urgency is declared by the President of the Republic in [the] Council of Ministers.

The National Assembly then meets of plain right, if it is not in session.

The extension, beyond fifteen days, of the state of siege or of urgency may only be authorized by the National Assembly.

The National Assembly may not be dissolved during the duration of the state of siege or the state of urgency.

An organic law determines the conditions of implementation of the state of siege and of the state of urgency.

The meetings of the National Assembly and of the Senate are public. The complete record of the debates is published in the Journal Officiel [Official Gazette].

The National Assembly can meet in closed sitting at the demand of the Prime Minister or at the demand of one-fifth (1/5) of the deputies.

The members of the Government have access to the National Assembly, to the Senate and to their commissions.

They may be heard on their demand.

They are equally heard on interpellation, by the National Assembly, on the written or oral questions which are addressed to them.

The Prime Minister, after deliberation of the Council of Ministers, may engage before the National Assembly the responsibility of the Government on its program or on a declaration of general policy.

The National Assembly, after debate, emits a vote. Confidence may only be refused to the Government with the majority of two-thirds (2/3) of the deputies composing the National Assembly.

When confidence is refused, the Prime Minister must remit to the President of the Republic the resignation of the Government.

The National Assembly may challenge the responsibility of the Government by the vote of a motion of censure.

Such a motion, to be receivable, must be signed by one-third (1/3) at least of the deputies composing the National Assembly. The vote may only intervene five (05) days after the deposit of the motion.

The National Assembly may only pronounce the censure of the Government with the majority of two-thirds (2/3) of its members.

If the motion of censure is adopted, the Prime Minister remits the resignation of his Government.

The President of the Republic appoints a new Prime Minister.

If the motion of censure is rejected, its signatories may not propose a new one during the course of the same session.