Get Data on Plenary Meetings of the Austrian Parliament

Retrieves information about plenary meetings from the Austrian Parliament's API (see here). Explicit period filters are available from the 20th legislative period onwards. With legis_period = NULL, the API returns all available periods.

Usage

get_plenary_meetings(
  institution = NULL,
  legis_period = NULL,
  meeting_and_activities = NULL,
  session_type = NULL,
  meeting_type = NULL,
  echo = FALSE
)

Arguments

institution: A character string specifying the institution. "BR" (Bundesrat/Federal Council), "NR" (Nationalrat/National Council), or "BV" (Bundesversammlung/Federal Assembly).
legis_period: Numeric value or vector specifying the legislative period(s). Explicit filters are supported from the 20th period onwards. NULL retrieves all available periods, including periods before the 20th and the historical codes "KN" and "PN". It must be NULL when institution = "BV" because the Bundesversammlung does not use legislative periods.
meeting_and_activities: A character string. One of 'meetings' or 'activities'. 'meetings' returns plenary meeting entries; 'activities' returns parliamentary items submitted or acted upon in meetings. Not applicable when institution is "BV" (Bundesversammlung); must be NULL for BV institution.
session_type: A character string or vector. Filter by meeting period type. Permissible values: "N" (Ordentliche Tagung / Ordinary session), "A" (Ausserordentliche Tagung / Extraordinary session). Can be NULL to retrieve all meeting period types. Not applicable when institution is "BV".
meeting_type: A character string or vector. Filter by sitting type. Permissible values: "S" (Sitzung / Regular sitting), "SO" (Sondersitzung / Special sitting), "ZU" (Zuweisungssitzung / Assignment sitting), "N" (Nachtrag / Addendum). Can be NULL to retrieve all sitting types. Only applicable when meeting_and_activities = "meetings".
echo: Logical. If TRUE, prints the URL to the corresponding search on the Parliament website, pagination progress, and the number of results. Default is FALSE.

Value

A tibble containing plenary meeting details (zero rows if no results are found). The structure depends on the meeting_and_activities parameter:

If meeting_and_activities = "meetings":

institution: parliamentary institution (e.g., "NR", "BR")
legis_period: legislative period (not returned if institution is 'BV')
date: date of the meeting
meeting_number: number of the meeting
meeting_url: URL to the meeting page
meeting_type: sitting type abbreviation ("S", "SO", "ZU", or "N")
meeting_title: full title of the meeting
session_type: meeting period type (e.g., "N" for Ordentliche Tagung)
agenda_url_html: URL to the agenda in HTML format (NA if not yet published)
agenda_url_pdf: URL to the agenda in PDF format (NA if not yet published)

If meeting_and_activities = "activities":

institution: parliamentary institution
legis_period: legislative period
date: date of the activity
title: title of the parliamentary item
url_item: URL to the parliamentary item
meeting_number: number of the meeting in which the item appeared
url_meeting: URL to the meeting
session_type: meeting period type of the meeting
activity_type: type of activity (e.g., "Sonstiges")
doc_type: document type description
citation: item citation string

For BV (Bundesversammlung) institution:

Returns basic meeting information without activity filtering
Does NOT include legis_period column (not applicable for Federal Assembly)
Columns returned: institution, date, meeting_number, meeting_url, meeting_type, meeting_title, session_type, agenda_url_html, agenda_url_pdf

Examples

# \donttest{
# Basic usage: meetings of the National Council for legislative period 28
result <- get_plenary_meetings(
  institution = "NR",
  legis_period = 28,
  meeting_and_activities = "meetings"
)
dplyr::glimpse(result)
#> Rows: 93
#> Columns: 10
#> $ institution     <chr> "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", …
#> $ legis_period    <chr> "28", "28", "28", "28", "28", "28", "28", "28", "28", …
#> $ date            <date> 2024-10-24, 2024-10-24, 2024-11-20, 2024-11-20, 2024-…
#> $ meeting_number  <chr> "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "10", "11…
#> $ meeting_url     <chr> "https://www.parlament.gv.at/gegenstand/XXVIII/NRSITZ/…
#> $ meeting_type    <chr> "S", "ZU", "S", "ZU", "S", "ZU", "S", "ZU", "S", "ZU",…
#> $ meeting_title   <chr> "1. Sitzung des Nationalrats vom 24. Oktober 2024", "2…
#> $ session_type    <chr> "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N",…
#> $ agenda_url_html <chr> "https://www.parlament.gv.at/dokument/XXVIII/NRSITZ/1/…
#> $ agenda_url_pdf  <chr> "https://www.parlament.gv.at/dokument/XXVIII/NRSITZ/1/…

# Parliamentary activities during meetings
result <- get_plenary_meetings(
  institution = "NR",
  legis_period = 27,
  meeting_and_activities = "activities"
)
dplyr::glimpse(result)
#> Rows: 3,646
#> Columns: 11
#> $ institution    <chr> "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", "…
#> $ legis_period   <chr> "27", "27", "27", "27", "27", "27", "27", "27", "27", "…
#> $ date           <date> 2019-10-23, 2019-10-23, 2019-10-23, 2019-10-23, 2019-1…
#> $ title          <chr> "Wahl der Präsidenten des Nationalrates", "Wahl der Sch…
#> $ url_item       <chr> "https://www.parlament.gv.at/gegenstand/XXVII/W/1", "ht…
#> $ meeting_number <chr> "1", "1", "1", "1", "1", "1", "1", "1", "1", "1", "1", …
#> $ url_meeting    <chr> "https://www.parlament.gv.at/gegenstand/XXVII/NRSITZ/1"…
#> $ session_type   <chr> "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", …
#> $ activity_type  <chr> "Sonstiges", "Sonstiges", "Sonstiges", "Sonstiges", "So…
#> $ doc_type       <chr> "Wahl von Funktionsträgern", "Wahl von Funktionsträgern…
#> $ citation       <chr> "1/W", "2/W", "3/W", "4/W", "5/W", "1/GO", "2/GO", "3/G…

# Federal Council meetings
result <- get_plenary_meetings(
  institution = "BR",
  legis_period = 28,
  meeting_and_activities = "meetings"
)
dplyr::glimpse(result)
#> Rows: 24
#> Columns: 10
#> $ institution     <chr> "BR", "BR", "BR", "BR", "BR", "BR", "BR", "BR", "BR", …
#> $ legis_period    <chr> "28", "28", "28", "28", "28", "28", "28", "28", "28", …
#> $ date            <date> 2024-12-05, 2024-12-19, 2025-01-30, 2025-03-13, 2025-…
#> $ meeting_number  <chr> "972", "973", "974", "975", "976", "977", "978", "979"…
#> $ meeting_url     <chr> "https://www.parlament.gv.at/gegenstand/BR/BRSITZ/972"…
#> $ meeting_type    <chr> "S", "S", "S", "S", "S", "S", "S", "S", "S", "S", "S",…
#> $ meeting_title   <chr> "972. Sitzung des Bundesrats vom 5. Dezember 2024", "9…
#> $ session_type    <chr> NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA…
#> $ agenda_url_html <chr> "https://www.parlament.gv.at/dokument/BR/BRSITZ/972/TO…
#> $ agenda_url_pdf  <chr> "https://www.parlament.gv.at/dokument/BR/BRSITZ/972/TO…

# Multiple legislative periods
result <- get_plenary_meetings(
  institution = "NR",
  legis_period = c(26, 27),
  meeting_and_activities = "meetings"
)
dplyr::glimpse(result)
#> Rows: 366
#> Columns: 10
#> $ institution     <chr> "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", "NR", …
#> $ legis_period    <chr> "26", "26", "26", "26", "26", "26", "26", "26", "26", …
#> $ date            <date> 2017-11-09, 2017-12-13, 2017-12-13, 2017-12-13, 2017-…
#> $ meeting_number  <chr> "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "10", "11…
#> $ meeting_url     <chr> "https://www.parlament.gv.at/gegenstand/XXVI/NRSITZ/1"…
#> $ meeting_type    <chr> "S", "S", "ZU", "S", "S", "ZU", "S", "ZU", "S", "ZU", …
#> $ meeting_title   <chr> "1. Sitzung des Nationalrats vom 9. November 2017", "2…
#> $ session_type    <chr> "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N",…
#> $ agenda_url_html <chr> "https://www.parlament.gv.at/dokument/XXVI/NRSITZ/1/TO…
#> $ agenda_url_pdf  <chr> "https://www.parlament.gv.at/dokument/XXVI/NRSITZ/1/TO…

# Federal Assembly (no legis_period, no meeting_and_activities)
result <- get_plenary_meetings(institution = "BV", legis_period = NULL)
dplyr::glimpse(result)
#> Rows: 19
#> Columns: 9
#> $ institution     <chr> "BV", "BV", "BV", "BV", "BV", "BV", "BV", "BV", "BV", …
#> $ date            <date> 1920-12-08, 1924-12-09, 1928-12-05, 1931-10-09, 1945-…
#> $ meeting_number  <chr> "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "10", "11…
#> $ meeting_url     <chr> "https://www.parlament.gv.at/gegenstand/BV/BVSITZ/1", …
#> $ meeting_type    <chr> "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N", "N",…
#> $ meeting_title   <chr> "1. Bundesversammlung vom 8. und 9. Dezember 1920", "2…
#> $ session_type    <chr> NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA…
#> $ agenda_url_html <chr> NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA…
#> $ agenda_url_pdf  <chr> NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA…
# }