Address of the Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami At Inaugural Session of the 17th Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean

Honorable Speaker of the House of Councilors,

Honorable President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, 

Ladies and gentlemen, the Honorable Speakers of the member Parliaments and Heads of delegations, 

Ladies and gentlemen, the esteemed representatives of international organizations, 

Your excellencies the Heads and representatives of the diplomatic missions in the Kingdom of Morocco, 

Ladies and gentlemen, 

It is with great pleasure that I take part in the proceedings of the inaugural session of the 17th Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, which we are pleased to host in the Kingdom of Morocco. We are most pleased to receive you, welcome guests, colleagues, and brothers, and eager to keep working with you in-person after the distancing and travel restrictions imposed by Covid-19 over the world, as we gather under the same space over the land of the Kingdom of Morocco, the State with deep roots in the Mediterranean basin and the country that has always had a strong and impactful presence in the construction of Mediterranean civilizations and the key events that marked the geopolitics of this Mediterranean region. 

This Session takes place amidst a regional context marked by successive conflicts and crises in the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean and in countries on the border of Mediterranean ones, taking into account all the calamities they engender on the region’s peoples and their repercussions on the entire Euro-Mediterranean region. The situation aggravates under a global context characterized by geopolitical tensions, mainly because of the repercussions of the war in eastern Europe. 

All-in-all, the current conditions in the world, and particularly in the Euro-Mediterranean region, are not better, if not worse than those in light of which started the Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Security and Cooperation in the Mediterranean in the early 1990s, precisely in the Malaga Conference in 1992, which is the process that culminated in 2006 in the creation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean. These are the same conditions amidst which took place the Oslo negotiations on the Palestinian cause with the hopes they generated of building peace and coexistence in the Middle East. They are also the same conditions amidst which the Barcelona Process was launched in 1995 in order to overcome. 

All these mechanisms had common objectives for which they were launched, mainly the establishment of just and lasting peace, end of terrorism and eradication of its reasons and roots, establishment of a space for common economic prosperity and welfare, respect and protection of human rights, consolidation of democracy, humanitarian management of migration, response to the reasons behind irregular migration, and transfer of technologies and investments from the north to the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean.

A quick glance at the conditions of our region today would make us realize that the conflicts in the eastern and southern shores of the Mediterranean and its surroundings have grown from one conflict to several national and transnational armed ones, especially because of external interference in countries’ affairs, or due to heinous sectarian tendencies and regional polarization. 

On the other hand, the gaps between the northern shore of the Mediterranean, on the one hand, and its eastern and southern shores, on the other, are widening in terms of revenues, access to wealth, to services, and to education, while conflicts, climate imbalances, and poverty aggravate the phenomena of migration, displacement, and asylum. The repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in eastern Europe have exacerbated these disparities because of the staggering spike in the prices of energy, raw materials, and foodstuff. Consequently, the discourses of bigotry, introversion, and rejection of others flourish in several countries, taking advantage of the floods of migration and the terrorist and violent attacks discarded, isolated, and condemned by all monotheistic religions, civil laws, and co-living traditions. 

The reminder of these conditions and the dark image of our region’s situation is not a call for cynicism or desperation, but a reminder of our responsibilities towards the persistence of the same conditions that our parliamentary organization and its counterparts were created to overcome through dialogue, cooperation, solidarity, and especially through mutual respect and non-interference in the internal affairs of countries. 

Meanwhile, it would be ungrateful to deny the great development and transformations that many member States of our Parliamentary Assembly have achieved in the area of institutional construction, democratization of public life, adoption of constitutions, protection of human rights, economic performance, and management of the causes of climate imbalances, despite the crises that surround them or in which they are a party. 

However, allow us to raise the question, since we are in a free parliamentary forum that is pluralistic at the levels of geography, politics, and culture: Have we achieved our mutual aspirations from North-South Cooperation in the Mediterranean region in terms of mutual prosperity and growth, transformation of investments and capitals under a win-win logic, and in a way that sets us free of the traditional logic of aids for development and facilitates the transfer of technologies?

Was Covid-19 not a crisis that put solidarity into question and demonstrated the thrive of national egoisms that have been bolstered by the war in eastern Europe and its repercussions on food and energy? 

In relation to peace and security, which remain our mutual and collective aspirations, let us acknowledge that the contribution of the Euro-Mediterranean community to the resolution of conflicts is still below its civilizational, historical, and cultural stature, and unsuitable to the collective security objective. Today, peace in the Middle East appears to be farther than it was in the early 1990s. However, we must be aware that as much as the Middle East cannot handle any new conflict or the persistence of the chronic conflicts in the region, as much as its peoples are eager for peace, and as much as it can accommodate both Palestinian and Israeli States that coexist in peace. The people of the Middle East have grown tired of wars and deserve now to coexist in peace, a just and lasting peace that opens new horizons for cooperation in the region and reins in extremism, intolerance, and violence. 

Concerning migration, it is a shame that the international community has normalized with the images of the waves of the Mediterranean as they engulf thousands of bodies yearly, particularly those of youth who put their life at risk in search for livelihood and security, because the doors of regular migration to the north are shut. Rather than being a sea of hope, communication, and exchanges, the Mediterranean has become a lagoon linked unlike any of the other sea crossings with human tragedies.

If human rights and the slogans of inclusion are also put into question by migration, we, as democratic politicians, must redress several misconceptions about migration, especially in Africa, which His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God glorify him, called for years ago. In this respect, he noted that African migration happens primarily within African countries, as four out of each five migrants stay in Africa, as irregular migration represents only 20% of the total volume of migration, and as 85% of the revenues of migrants are spent in the host countries – His Majesty clarifies as a pioneer of the African Union in migration.

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Those who risk their lives by migrating are driven to leave their countries, either by need, or in search of safety, or by drought or unstable conditions. Thus, we should stop instrumentalizing migration in political and electoral biddings in Europe. Instead, we should work to find collective solutions that ensure the dignity of migrants who contribute -as did their ancestors- to the construction of Europe's economy after the war and during the colonial era.

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

One of the objectives of our Parliamentary Assembly is to contribute to the consolidation of the partnership between our countries, in the Mediterranean region, and in the world, as well as to the creation of an inclusive economic area that thrives within the framework of stability, peace, and democracy, where all benefit from its fruits, and where the values of tolerance, coexistence and, above all, mutual respect prevail. However, let me recall that the practices of certain political powers in Europe go against this horizon. Such practices disrupt, nay impede the establishment of balanced and fair partnerships through their efforts to impose their tutelage over the partners and interfere in their internal affairs and in their constitutional institutions and prerogatives. This is unfortunately done on the basis of false, erroneous, isolated, and on-demand reports issued to serve aforethought purposes. I reiterate our strong condemnation of these practices as reflected in the European Parliament's recommendation, and I reaffirm that partnerships do not go hand-in-hand with the lecturing approach, and with patriarchal, arrogant, and tutelage tendencies. Besides, our advanced status in our relationship with the European Union and our strategic partnership with the said body is built on values and principles before benefits, of which there are many, and of which we are proud and hold on to. 

Honorable colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, you are witnesses to the distinct contributions of the Kingdom of Morocco to the Euro-Mediterranean partnership and to the creation of its parliamentary mechanisms. Our Parliament has made a distinct contribution to the Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Security and Cooperation in the Mediterranean since the early 1990s and to its transformation into a parliamentary assembly that constitutes today the framework that brings us together, given that we chaired its constitutive session, presided it over in the person of the Honorary President to whom you are paying tribute today, and hosted several of its meetings.

At the same time, we made a founding contribution to the creation of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Forum in 1998, which was transformed into a parliamentary assembly in Athens in 2004, which today bears the name of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean, given that our brother, Mr. Abdelouahed Radi, was co-president of the Parliamentary Forum from its inception alongside the presidents of the European Parliament at that time, until its transformation into a parliamentary assembly. The audiovisual and written archives of the European Parliament must certainly enclose the primordial contribution of the Moroccan Parliament to the creation of these mechanisms, as well as the requirements of such a contribution in a context that you all know. 

You are also witnesses that the Kingdom of Morocco, this secular State that is pleased to welcome you is a country that “assumes its international and regional responsibilities in several fundamental global issues: the fight against terrorism, the work for peace, the humanitarian and solidarity management of migration, the intervention against the causes of climate imbalances, the solidarity for development, and the sharing of expertise, especially with our African brothers.”

The countries of the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean, including the Kingdom of Morocco, possess constitutional institutions, all the mechanisms, political parties, and civil bodies to implement, protect, and monitor respect for human rights. Thus, their institutions and choices must be respected and no one should interfere in their internal affairs.  

Everyone must be aware that democracy is not built on external recipes. Democracy is the result of accumulation, construction, and institutions, knowing that no person denies the main condition for this construction, meaning free and transparent elections in which political forces that believe in democracy participate and which our countries organize regularly. 

On the other hand, the power of the Mediterranean basin does not lie in fragmentation and disregard of partners, but in the degree of manifestation of the rationality of great figures such as Aristotle, Averroes, and Descartes, and in the sincere desire to recover the spirit of Fez, Athens, Granada, Rome, and Alexandria, a spirit of coexistence, tolerance, and cultural and material exchange. 

I welcome you once again and thank you for listening.