Act on Municipal Mergers (LFusCom) - Principle and Definition (LFusCom)

1. The State encourages and promotes the mergers of municipalities.

2. A merger of municipalities is the amalgamation of two or more municipalities into one single and new municipality.

3. The merger procedure is free of charge; no taxes or fees are levied by the State.

1. The department responsible for communal relations (hereinafter: the department) [B] and the prefects support communes in matters of merger. They may, in particular, collaborate with them in the preparation of a merger and address recommendations to them.

2. The department

a. coordinates the activity of other departments during communal mergers;

b. conducts the notice and approval procedures with the competent federal and cantonal authorities;

c. informs other departments of communal mergers that are about to come into force.

1. The general or municipal council, the municipality, or a segment of the electorate through an initiative, may propose a merger with one or more other municipalities.

1. The municipalities of the concerned communes prepare for the merger.

2. They may establish an intermunicipal working group and sign an agreement particularly regulating the composition, organization, tasks, and financing of this working group.

3. They must regularly inform their population, their general or municipal council, the department, and the relevant prefects about the progress of the preparatory work.

1. Every municipal merger requires an agreement concluded by the communes concerned.

2. The merger agreement must notably determine

a. the name and coat of arms of the new commune;

b. the deliberative authority of the new commune (general council or communal council; in the latter case, the method of election and the number of members);

c. the number of members of the municipal executive;

d. the regulations and tariffs that will apply to the new commune, subject to Article 12;

e. the date on which the merger will come into force.

1. The draft merger agreement is submitted to the department, which verifies its legality.

2. The department submits the draft agreement to the Nomenclature Commission, the Cantonal Archives, and the Federal Office of Topography, and gathers their determinations. The advisory opinion of the Nomenclature Commission is not binding.

**1. The merger agreement is simultaneously adopted by the general or communal council of each of the concerned municipalities. Notwithstanding Article 35 LC [C], the municipalities of the concerned communes may, by mutual agreement, modify the text of the merger agreement until the deliberative bodies decide on its adoption.**

1. The merger agreement is simultaneously submitted to the electorates of each of the concerned municipalities, when all the general or municipal councils have adopted it or formulated a voting recommendation regarding it.

1. In the event of the consent of all the concerned electoral bodies, the merger agreement is submitted for ratification by the Grand Council to have the force of law.

1. The rights and obligations, as well as the assets and liabilities, of the merging municipalities are transferred to the new municipality on the effective date of the merger.

2. When all member municipalities of an association of municipalities, a federation of municipalities, or an agglomeration merge with each other, these public law entities are dissolved by operation of law, and their rights and obligations, as well as their assets and liabilities, are transferred to the new municipality on the effective date of the merger.

1. The citizens of the municipalities that merge shall acquire the right of citizenship of the new municipality on the day the merger comes into effect. The name of their former municipality of origin shall be inscribed in parentheses after the name of the new municipality.

2. In the event of successive mergers, the names of the former municipalities of origin shall be inscribed in order of antiquity within the parentheses.

3. In the event of a naturalization procedure or acquisition of citizenship as per Article 2, paragraph 1, letter d) of the Vaud Citizenship Law [D], the municipal right of citizenship shall be that of the new political municipality.

1. The regulations concerning land use planning and construction policing, including taxes and fees, shall remain valid within the former municipal boundaries until new regulations of the same matter come into effect in the new municipality.

2. The enactment of new regulations must be carried out as expeditiously as possible.

3. Other exceptions to Article 5, paragraph 2, letter d, may be provided by the concerned municipalities. These must be included in the merger agreement with an indication of their duration. This duration cannot exceed two years from the date the merger becomes effective.

1. Between the ratification of the merger agreement by the Grand Council and the entry into force of the merger, the authorities of the new municipality must be elected. If the merger comes into force during the course of a legislature, they are elected for the remainder of that term. The new municipality forms the electoral district, subject to Article 14.

2. If the merger comes into force within six months before the end of the legislature, the merger agreement may stipulate that the authorities of the new municipality shall be constituted without an election for the remainder of the legislature only. In this case, the merger agreement must indicate the number of members of the municipal council and the municipality, as well as the terms of their appointment. Failing that, the municipal council and the municipality are constituted by combining the authorities of each of the municipalities that are merging. In all cases, the merger agreement must specifically designate the mayor.

3. If the merger comes into force within six months after the end of the legislature, by derogation from paragraph 1, second sentence of this article, the merger agreement may provide that the mandate of the authorities of the municipalities concerned is extended without an election until the merger takes effect. The authorities of the new municipality must be elected as provided in paragraph 1, first sentence above.

1. Notwithstanding Article 13, paragraph 1 of this law, the merger agreement may stipulate that, for the first election of the communal council, the municipality, or both authorities, the merging communes constitute several electoral districts, each composed of one or more communes.

2. In such cases, the seats of the communal council of the new commune are distributed among the districts, proportionally to the size of their population according to the latest cantonal annual census.

2bis. The agreement may determine the number of seats for the municipality per electoral district. By default, the seats are distributed in accordance with paragraph 2 above.

2ter. It may be exempted from the limits that the municipal law [C] sets on the number of members of the communal council. Each district is entitled to at least one seat on the communal council.

3. When the merging communes constitute several electoral districts for the election of the communal council, the merger agreement mandates the mode of election that will apply to all electoral districts.

4. When the first election takes place during the legislative term, the merger agreement may stipulate that the same solution shall apply once more during the general elections for the following legislative term.

5. The new commune forms a single and unique electoral district for the election of the mayor.

1. During the legislatures where the former municipalities constitute several electoral districts as per Article 14, paragraph 1 of this law, seats that become vacant on the municipal council or at the municipality must be refilled separately in the relevant district or districts, in accordance with the municipal law [C] and the law on the exercise of political rights [E].

2. In the absence of an official candidate in an electoral district, the new municipality then forms the electoral district for the supplementary election.

1. Until the entry into force of the merger, each municipality shall adopt its budget in accordance with legal and regulatory provisions. Upon the entry into force of the merger, the new municipality shall have its own budget adopted by its authorities once they have taken office.

2. If the merger comes into effect during the calendar year, the budgets of the former municipalities shall be assumed by the new municipality until the end of the current calendar year.

1. Until the merger comes into effect, each municipality maintains its accounts in accordance with legal and regulatory provisions. Once the merger comes into effect, the new municipality maintains its own accounts.

2. If the merger comes into effect during the calendar year, the closing of the accounts of the former municipalities is carried out by the new municipality, along with its own accounts, at the end of the current calendar year.

1. Until the merger enters into force, each municipality retains its equalization. Once the merger enters into force, the new municipality benefits from its own equalization status.

2. In the event that the merger enters into force during a calendar year, the individual equalizations of the former municipalities apply to the new municipality until the end of the current calendar year. In this case, the new municipality benefits from its own equalization status starting from January 1 of the year following the entry into force of the merger.

1. Until the merger takes effect, each municipality shall adopt its tax ordinance in accordance with legal and regulatory provisions.

2. In the event that the merger takes effect during the calendar year, the tax ordinances of the former municipalities shall remain in effect within the territory of each of them until the end of the current calendar year.

1. In the event of the merger of municipalities belonging to different districts, the merger agreement shall specify to which of these districts the new municipality intends to be attached.

1. The deliberative authority of a federation of municipalities or an agglomeration may decide to submit a proposal for the merger of all member municipalities to their municipality. These must inform their general or municipal council.

1. When the preservation of the general interest of a region or one or more municipalities justifies it, the Council of State may require one or more municipalities to simultaneously submit the principle of a merger to their electorate.

2. The prior advice of the department, the relevant prefects, and the municipalities of the concerned communes is required beforehand.

3. When the electorate(s) have expressed support for the principle of the merger, the provisions of this law apply, as well as those of the law on the exercise of political rights [E] addressing the right of initiative in municipal matters.

1. The provisions of this law shall apply by analogy to the division of a municipality and its distribution among several other municipalities and the attachment of a part of a municipality to another municipality. Articles 24 to 29 do not apply in the latter case.

2. Articles 104c to 104i and 106 of the Law of 28 February 1956 on Municipalities [C] are reserved.

1. Municipalities that wish to merge are entitled to start-up financial assistance and, in the event of the merger being completed, financial incentives.

2. …

1. Start-up aids and financial incentives are funded through a fund.

2. This fund is included in the State's balance sheet. Its operation is governed by a decree of the Grand Council.

1. Upon a joint request from municipalities wishing to enter into a merger process, the Council of State may grant initial financial assistance to cover up to half of the costs related to the merger study. The methods for calculating and disbursing this financial assistance are established by a decree of the Grand Council.

1. Municipalities wishing to merge may receive assistance from the State Delegate responsible for supporting municipal mergers.

1. Financial Incentive consists of an amount in francs per inhabitant of the merging municipalities. This amount is set by a decree of the Grand Council.

2. The financial incentive is capped at 1,500 inhabitants per merging municipality and at 3,000 inhabitants for all the merging municipalities collectively.

3. The number of inhabitants of each merging municipality is determined based on the residents' population register. Persons with temporary residency are not taken into account.

4. In the event of a new merger within ten years following the entry into force of a previous merger, the population of the municipalities for which the financial incentive was granted during the previous merger is not considered for the calculation of the new financial incentive.

1. To encourage mergers of more than two municipalities, a multiplier is applied to the calculation of the financial incentive.

2. When two municipalities merge, the multiplier is 1. It is increased by 0.1 units for each additional municipality participating in the merger.

1. The concerned municipalities may request the department at any time to calculate the indicative amount of the financial incentive.

2. The Council of State decides on the amount of the financial incentive once all the electoral bodies have given their consent to the merger agreement. The interested municipalities must submit a request for this.

3. For the calculation of the financial incentive, the Council of State considers the parameters valid on the day when the electoral bodies of all the municipalities merging have simultaneously given their consent to the merger agreement.

4. The financial incentive is paid in a single installment to the new municipality within the year following the entry into force of the merger.

1. The financial incentive under Chapter IV is increased for the 10 years following the entry into force of this law.

2. The increase consists of multiplying the amount of the financial incentive by 2 during the 7 years following the entry into force of this law.

3. The increase consists of multiplying the amount of the financial incentive by 1.5 from the 8th year following the entry into force of this law.

4. The day on which the electoral bodies of all municipalities that are merging have simultaneously given their consent to the merger agreement is decisive in determining whether the merger occurs within 7 or 10 years.

5. The provisions of Chapter IV apply by analogy to the dissolution of parts of municipalities. For the calculation of the financial incentive, only the number of inhabitants of the part of the municipality is taken into account.

1. Municipalities that merged between April 14, 2003, and the entry into force of this law are entitled to the incentive measures set forth in Articles 24 to 28.

2. The interested municipalities must submit a request to the Council of State in accordance with Article 27.

1. Article 106 of the Law of May 16, 1989, on the Exercise of Political Rights [E] applies by analogy to the initiative concerning the merger of municipalities originating from the electorates of municipalities with a general and municipal council until the entry into force of the new provisions relating to the right of initiative in municipal matters.

2. The two-month period of Article 111, paragraph 2, of the Law of May 16, 1989, on the Exercise of Political Rights [E] is extended to six months.

1. Articles 3 to 9 of this law do not apply to municipal mergers for which the merger agreement was submitted to the State Council for ratification by the Grand Council before the entry into force of this law. These mergers shall continue to follow the procedure set forth in Article 107 of the Law of February 28, 1956, on municipalities [C].

1. Within the year following the entry into force of this law, the citizens of previously merged communes may request that the registration of their municipal citizenship in the civil status be subject to the new law.

2. The request is submitted to the cantonal authority supervising civil status.

3. The procedure is free of charge.

1. Municipalities whose electorates have given their consent to the merger agreement between January 1, 2018, and the entry into force of this law are entitled to the financial incentive provided for in Article 25.

2. Start-up assistance as defined in Article 24b may be granted to municipalities engaged in a merger process between January 1, 2018, and the entry into force of this law.

1. The Council of State is responsible for the execution of the present law. It shall publish the text in accordance with Article 84, paragraph 1, letter a of the Cantonal Constitution and shall set, by way of an ordinance, the date of its entry into force.