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The
President’s File,
the Case of a Legislative File
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Key Points
The President’s file, which is
prepared by the Table Office, is the main thread of the debates for the
chairman of the sitting. It guarantees their conformity to the Rules of
Procedure, makes their conduct much clearer and helps the chairman in his role
as referee.
Its main features are :
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The texts of the various
announcements to be made at the beginning of the sitting ;
- The
formula to be used to call the bill contained on the agenda ;
- The
formulae to be used to give the floor to the minister and to the
rapporteurs (with for the latter a mention made of their allotted speaking
time) ;
- The
list of the speakers enrolled in the general debates or the general
discussions dealing with a legislative bill with mention made of their
allotted speaking time ;
- The
amendments listed in their order to be called with mention made of identical
amendments, of those submitted to common discussion and the consequences of
the adoption of such and such an amendment ;
- The
formulae to be used during votes.
No matter how complete it may
be, the President’s file cannot take into account all the eventualities that
may occur during a sitting since, in addition to the incidents which may
always happen during a political debate, various phases of the legislative
discussion, such as the discussion of amendments, are organized during the
sitting itself by the spontaneous enrolment of different M.P.s to speak.
The President’s
file is the essential support for the chairman of the sitting in his chairing
of the debates. It helps him to remain vigilant during the entire proceedings.
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Les deux premières motions : exception d'irrecevabilité et question préalable
L'examen des articles
The basic principles of the discussion of amendments
introduced on a particular article lead to a procedure going from the
general to the specific. Thus the deletion of an article is called
before the deletion of a paragraph and the deletion of a paragraph is
called before the deletion of a sentence included in that paragraph etc
and so each separation of the text is dealt with successively. Therefore
all the amendments concerning the first paragraph are called before those
concerning the second paragraph etc.
Competing amendments are
discussed with the deletion amendments being taken first, followed by the
other amendments beginning with those which deviate the most from the
proposed text and then those, in order, which go against it, those to be
inserted and those to be added to it.
Consequences of the
passing of amendments:
The passing of amendment 1 means all other amendments
are dropped and the article is deleted.
The passing of amendment 2 means all other amendments
are dropped and the article is re-written thus.
The passing of amendment 3 means amendment 4 is
dropped.
The passing of amendment 8 means amendment 9 is
dropped.
The passing of amendment 10 means amendment 11 is
dropped.
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