ameli and basile : informatics tools and the senates procedure

AMELI and BASILE :

Informatics tools and the Senate’s procedure

AMELI and BASILE :AMELI and BASILE :Informatics tools and the Senate’s procedureInformatics tools and the Senate’s procedure

For many years the French Senate has developed efficient informatics tools dealing with all aspects of parliamentary procedure : legislative work as well as oversight over the Government’s policy.

In this respect, the administration of the Senate was aiming at :

providing a larger information of citizens on the Senate’s

work ;

helping senators in a better way to fulfill their parliamentary

mandate ;

modernizing the production of senatorial documents, such as

committees reports, official documents or proceedings minutes.


- This involvment in developping informatics tools started in April 1978 with the introduction of the first documentary data base concerning the french Parliament and devoted to questions tabled by Senators.

- Along years, it went on with the implementation of several other data bases such as :

DOSLEG : data base on bills and committee’s reports in 1978

CRA : data base on the minutes of public sittings in 1996

BALLOTS : data base on recorded votes ans ballots in 1998

AMELI : data base on amendments in December 2001

PORTALIS : data base on rules and proceedings in 2003 theseinformation being for the exclusive use of the Sitting department

andthe chairmanship of the Senate

BASILE : data base on questions in April 2004

SOLON II : data base on the legislative process involving not onlythe Senate but also the National Assembly, the Prime minister’soffices and the Journal officiel in January and June 2012


This presentation will focuse on two specific and interactive application programs dealing with amendments and questions :

AMELI : (standing for AMEndments on LIne) : a tool for legislative

work

and

BASILE : (standing for BASe d’Information LEgislative) : a tool for

oversight

AMELI : A tool for the Senate’s legislative workAMELI : A tool for the Senate’s legislative work

AMELI

or

the story of amendments


Any change in the wording of a bill is an amendment. Amendments are brought by Members of Parliament or Ministers.

Filing an amendment requires the following actions :

First : to get connected to AMELI by using a securedidentification number and a personal code ;

Second : to choose a bill among those tabled in the Senate onwhich to file the amendment ;

Third : to define precisely the type of amendment consisting forexample : in adding a new article to the bill orsuppressing an article ; in changing, suppressing oradding a paragraph, a sentence, a word within anarticle of a bill…

Fourth : to send the amendment to the Sitting department ;


Three steps to file an amendment

Bill

Number

Status

Author

Article

Amendment on what ?

Purpose of the amendment


The look of a tabled amendment


AMELI

A modern tool

for senators,

political groups,

standing committees

and ministers

in order

To table amendments : on the average

between 8 000 and 10 000

amendments are filed each year to be

discussed during public sittings

To send amendments from their offices

in the Senate, from their constituency or

from any other place where they can

find a computer and the Internet

network


AMELI A modern tool in the

hands of the Sitting department in order :

To check and correct tabled amendments ;

To organize the order of discussion of amendments during the public sitting ;

To prepare the Chairman’s file for the discussion of articles and amendments during the public sitting ;

To set the filing list of amendments also called « dérouleur » which is broadcasted on the in house TV channel, helping senators and the public to follow the debate ;

To settle the final wording of the bill in progress as soon as it is adopted by senators during the public sitting


AMELI A modern tool in the

hands of the minutes department in order :

To set the minutes of the public debate on

bills more rapidly ;

To establish these minutes at a less

expansive cost : actually AMELI saves

385 000 photocopies per year ;

To secure the setting of senatorial archives

on the public debates and to facilitate

researches on these debates.


AMELIA modern tool

provided to citizens in order :

To obtain information concerning tabled amendments :

in an easier way : with no need of being present in the premises of the Senate ;

more rapidly : as soon as they are tabled and checked by the Sitting department, amendments are available on AMELI;

To follow step by step the adoption of the bill in progress : as soon as they occur the results of votes on amendments are available on AMELI as well as the text of the bill itself.


AMELI Committee

In order to comply with the constitutional reform of July 2008, giving increased

legislative powers to committees, it has been necessary to provide Senators with a

new system called AMELI Committee because, now, the Senate in plenary

discusses the text as amended by the committee to which the bill has been referred

to and does not discuss any more the text sent by the Government or by the

National Assembly.

AMELI Committee has been available since october 2010.

It is shaped like AMELI although it is only available while standing committees are

working on the bill, before the plenary sitting.

BASILE

or

the story of a question

BASILE : A tool for oversightBASILE : A tool for oversight

BASILE A modern tool

For Senators to raise questions and receive

answers to these questions ;

For administrators to check, file and forward

questions and answers to Senators, to the

Government and to the Journal officiel ;

For citizens to get information on questions.


Filing a question requires the following actions :

First : to get connected to BASILE by using a secured identification

number and a personal code ;

Second : to choose the minister concerned ;

Third : to write the question ;

Fourth : to send the question to the administrator.


1) reception of filed questions 2) checking and validation by the administrator


Senator

Administrator

Base

BasileJournal officiel

1- Electronic filing of Q

2 – Validation of Q

3/9 - Tuesday : Export of Q/A towards the JO

4 - Thursday : Import of Q/A from the JO

Ministries

Base

Basile

5 – Thursday : export of Q towards SOLON

7 – Tuesday : export of A from SOLON

SOLON RÉPONSES

8 – Validation of A

6 – Preparation of A


AMELI and BASILE are unanimously recognized as very efficient and

useful tools for senators and citizens.

As expected AMELI and BASILE helped to increase the visibility on the

Senate’s work and to provide in an easier way documents and

information concerning the Senate.

Solon IISolon II

SOLON II

On June 26, 2012 in the wake of modernization of our informatics tools the

Senate, together with the National Assembly, the Prime minister’s offices

and the Journal officiel have launched a new program called SOLON II.

This program facilitates the connections and the circulation of information

concerning the work of both houses of Parliament, the legislative process,

and the oversight policy.

For the first time, all the institutions dealing with these matters are closely

working together with a single program system.

ameli and basile : informatics tools and the senates procedure

Documents

amendment ameli

senates work

senates procedure slide

modern tool

public sitting slide

sitting department slide

story of amendments

base dinformation legislative