Address of Speaker of House of Representatives at Closure of Second Legislative Session of Fifth Legislative Year of Tenth Legislature

Bismi Allah Ar-rahmān Ar-rahīm Wa As-Salātu Wa As-salāmu ʿAlā Achrafi Al-Mursalīn

Dear Ministers,

Fellow Representatives,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear colleagues,

We gather today in this constitutional sitting that concludes the works of a full legislature. This legislature was rich in production and action in the various functions and prerogatives of the House of Representatives, amidst a national and international context that was and is still packed with events that we, the House, committed to interacting with, in a way that makes our institutional contribution a positive one that eases the Moroccan development that His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God glorify him, leads with prudence, capability, and a proactive strategic vision.

Allow me, dear colleagues, given the importance of the juncture and following the institutional traditions, to give a brief presentation of the record of our collective action as political components of the House during the tenth legislature and the means through which we have achieved it. First, however, allow me to focus particularly on the lessons that I, as Speaker of the House, consider worth drawing to adopt accumulation in our political and institutional life, and in a way that drives us to the future of our parliamentary practice with an approach of overcoming gaps and redressing shortfalls, and, of course, valuing the positive outcomes and building upon them. The goal that we intend together, as partners, remains to construct the country, ease its development, and reinforce its resilience.

This partnership in belonging to the same country, working for it, and introducing reforms for the future has prevailed over our works. In this respect, we engaged in applying this methodology, or rather value, in what I call the democracy of consensus that is entrenched today in our country as a vision and an approach in managing the questions, issues, and major challenges that we are proud today to gather behind His Majesty the King and his leadership to level up to.

I want to start with one of our national priorities, as we should be proud of what our country has achieved in consolidating our territorial integrity. We should also be proud that it is a sacred cause that reflects consensus and unanimity. Accordingly, we were committed to defending it collectively as Speakership, Board, chairpersons of the parliamentary groups and caucus, parliamentary representations, and friendship groups, using an approach of persuasion by historical and international law arguments, and vigilance.

In the same respect, we referred back and committed, in dealing with this question, to the directives of His Majesty the King to the Parliament and to the Speakership of the House to "defend the country's supreme interests via a proactive and efficient parliamentary diplomacy."

If we, to defend our territorial integrity, are backed by several legitimacies, including history, democracy, law, and geography, then the achievements currently taking place in the southern regions since the first day of their retrieval consolidate the credibility of our national position.

The structural development projects in infrastructure, basic equipment, social services, and productive sectors implemented in those regions are today the headline of the reality of including the southern regions with the rest of the country. They also attest concretely to the national solidarity and regional cohesion between the country's regions and reflect the efforts of overcoming what occupation had cost those regions. The latter have made enormous strides in development, public and private investments, social services, and material and immaterial security.

The southern regions witness the implementation of a real development model, and there is no doubt that we could not have realized those achievements without the wisdom, directives, keenness, and follow-up of His Majesty the King for this development model that He launched and ordered the allocation of financial credits, institutional instruments, and human resources to it.

As for the diplomatic front, the official recognition by the United States of America that the retrieved southern regions are an integral part of the Moroccan territory crowned a line of gains that our country has made. This line was marked by the opening of several consulates by numerous countries in the southern cities of Laayoune and Dakhla, and by a decisive and clear international advocacy of the professional and pacific intervention of the Royal Armed Forces on November 13, 2020, to ensure the safe and smooth movement of people and goods through the Guergarate border crossing. I want to seize this opportunity to extend to these forces and their Supreme Commander and Chief of General Staff His Majesty King Mohammed VI the expressions of gratitude, consideration, and respect.

These gains have boosted and have been fostered by other achievements realized by our country during the latest years, including, as previously mentioned, the return of the Kingdom to the African Union and its qualitative added value to the work of the Union and its structures. I should also mention, in this context, the achievements realized in bilateral ties linking the Kingdom to the other African countries, thanks to the closeness diplomacy approach lead by His Majesty King Mohammed VI on the ground, built upon partnership, cooperation, and seeking mutual benefit.

Hence, it is a new milestone of our country's journey towards an international and geopolitical positioning amidst an unsettled regional context and an international weaving one, marked by new exceptional challenges the global community faces.

There is no doubt that the achievements realized during the last two decades in consolidating and entrenching territorial integrity and the successes achieved in this regard on the international level put a heavy national responsibility on the shoulders of the House and its components and bodies. This national responsibility is an incentive to pursue work on the parliamentary diplomacy level within bilateral and multilateral frameworks to preserve gains and promote the legitimacy of our cause as part of the Royal approach and the cooperation and complementarity with the official diplomacy.

The succession of these achievements would undoubtedly not have happened without the domestic work of reinforcing democracy, entrenching the rule of law, the keenness to preserving human rights and giving them an economic and social dimension, and building upon the accumulation of reforms.

However different our political affiliations, intellectual orientations, or the institutional and political positioning (in the majority or the opposition) are, our national cause must remain one of the essential and pivotal questions in our dealings with others in our international relations. We should also remain vigilant, stand strong in the different parliamentary organizations, and use the truth, legitimacy, and the details of the cause to refute the allegations of the foes of our territorial integrity and their untenable doctrine. This action will surely continue with patriotism and national consensus. In the same respect, the representatives of southern regions within the House will remain at the leadership of delegations and the core members of parliamentary representations, given their deep knowledge about the case and because they are legitimate representatives of the people of southern regions and maintain the right to defend territorial integrity. I want to seize this opportunity to address the expressions of utmost respect and consideration to our people in the southern regions and their elites.

The achievements of our country and its regional, continental, and international power have angered some parties who started creating crises and bending the provisions of international law and the regulations of relations between states. These parties have hindered the action of continental institutions, and the example on this is the latest events in the Pan-African Parliament that witnessed during its latest session retarded practices that tarnish the image of Africa. If the foes of our territorial integrity, who have become isolated on both the African and international levels, try to impose on countries their positions, standards, and emotions, then nor gambits, creating problems, bending laws, or decontextualizing core causes would push our country to yield. The Kingdom of Morocco will not draw back from defending its legitimate rights to sovereignty and independent decision, neither from its journey towards positioning as a regional and continental power that plays decisive roles in the regional equations following an approach of neutrality and not intruding on the internal affairs of other countries, and by defending justice and peace.

Dear Colleagues,

The tenth legislature was rich in legislative production, both on the levels of quantity and quality of the approved texts, their goals, and their impact on society. Thus, we can say that our legislative production, in its major part, orients a new generation of reforms that our country is launching under the directives and following the vision of His Majesty the King, and the transformations that our country aspires to achieve to entrench the Moroccan emanation and social cohesion.

In contrast to simplified conclusions, the legislative works cannot be reduced to the mere procedures of examination and vote. In fact, they result from consensus, culture, persuasion, mutual concessions, and invoking the interests of the country and society. They are laws regulating societies and their relations to the state, guaranteeing rights, and imposing obligations. If the public opinion or observers of parliamentary affairs have the right to note the delay in adopting some laws of major timeliness, it should be noted that this timeliness and their importance is what requires deeper debate, scrutiny, broader consensus, and further amelioration of the conditions of adopting legislative texts.

We have managed to adopt organic and ordinary laws that have been the object of political and social bickering and have sometimes moved to the level of persistent problems. During that process,we all recall the level and quality of debate that these texts have raised within the House of Representatives and the public sphere, which we considered normal given the nobility of this reform, its depth, connotation, and social, historical, and human rights value.

The legislative outcome was also qualitative given the nature of the approved texts and the context in which we worked, which was marked during 2020-2021 by the repercussions of Covid-19 on various aspects of life. In total, we have adopted more than 80 founding texts that are of utmost importance to our political, economic, cultural, and social life.

Conversely, if there is a legislative deficit that we should acknowledge during the tenth legislature - as in the previous ones, as the statistics have shown - it is about the optimal investment of legislative initiatives of the House members. In this respect, only 7% of parliamentary bills were approved during the tenth legislature, which means 23 parliamentary bills out of the 330 approved bills, and which means 8% of the parliamentary bills proposed by the representatives, which are 257.

We note this lack of responsiveness to the legislative initiatives of the House members, and we acknowledge that the legislative initiative of the Parliament, in some cases, needs quantitative and qualitative development, improvement, and refinement. However, we reiterate the importance of the parliamentary bills and their value, especially, perhaps, the concrete exercise by the Parliament of its legislative powers, including also the contribution of the legislative initiative to filling the legal vacuum in numerous activities, sectors, and social issues.

This situation has several reasons: the lack of balance in the opportunities, expertise, and data between the legislative and executive branches. The second reason is the existence of a culture that must change, which treats the legislative initiatives of deputies with caution. The third reason is the poor communication between institutions, between the Government and the Parliament, between the parties and their institutional extensions, and between the majority and its constituent parties.

The marginalization of the legislative initiative of parliamentarians relates to several objective and subjective obstacles, which we can certainly overcome, and that should not limit our common ambition to develop and improve this competence entrusted to parliamentarians by the Constitution. To achieve this goal, I would like to recall suggestions we have made on several occasions. First, each parliamentary bill must include in its attachments a study of its context and possible impacts and an explanation of the reasons behind its proposition and its goals. Secondly, there is a need to improve the formulation of parliamentary bills, which would be possible with two important actions we have taken during this legislature, namely the creation of an administrative unit in charge of drafting laws to assist the House members in their legislative functions, and the creation of the Parliamentary Center for Studies and Research.

I hope that this will be a pillar for advancing the legislative initiatives of the House members.

My third suggestion is that legislative initiatives of representatives should be at the heart of debates between the House of Representatives, the Government, and society, represented by professional and civil bodies and opinion-makers. Additionally, the necessary measures should be taken regarding the fate of parliamentary bills, and the relevant provisions of the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure should be implemented.

Dear Colleagues,

The legislative procedure is not complete with the adoption of the texts and their publication in the Official Gazette. One of the dilemmas that may limit the impact of legislation on Moroccan society is the lack of enforcement of the laws, as long as the related enforcement decrees are not issued, which may be stipulated in the adopted texts.

In response to this situation, we have taken a series of measures that are at the heart of the House’s control powers, namely its authority to control the application of the laws it approves. To consolidate this, we believe that we should adopt measures to track the application of laws, particularly through the issuance of enforcement decrees:

• The first measure is to require the executive branch to attach to every Government bill it submits to the Parliament the necessary enforcement decrees.
• The second measure, in the case of non-response to the first, is for the Parliament to at least request from the Government, during the debate on the legislative text at the committee level, and to reiterate the request at the plenary sitting, to commit before the Parliament to a clear timetable for drafting and issuing the necessary enforcement decrees for each text.
• The third measure is that the minutes and report of any legislative text approved by the House of Representatives shall contain an inventory of the enforcement decrees required for its entry into force. This would serve as a journal to which the House members could refer in the exercise of their control authority.
• The fourth measure is to require the administrative department of each standing committee to prepare a special report and establish an inventory of the laws that require enforcement decrees, and to monitor the publication of such decrees or their absence so that the members of the committee can follow the status of publication of such decrees, discuss the outcomes, and take the necessary control measures.
• The fifth measure is to hold the Government accountable through the constitutional control mechanisms for the non-issuance of such decrees and the enforcement of laws.
• The sixth measure is creating a thematic working group, with a limited number of members, on the follow-up of legislation, the publication of laws, and the issuance of enforcement decrees called the thematic group in charge of monitoring the enforcement or application of laws.

 Dear Colleagues,

If controlling government action is one of the traditional prerogatives and functions of parliaments, it, then, requires, in such circumstances that representative democracies are undergoing, in the face of anti-parliamentary tendencies across the world, and amidst a context of open and communicating worlds, constant creativity in the formulas of implementation. This is to make the work of legislative institutions in this aspect more attractive and closer to citizens, strengthen society's trust in institutions, and enhance the credibility of these institutions.

During the tenth legislature, we were keen, together with the House organs and political components, to ensure that every societal issue and every national event echoed in the House of Representatives, following the principle of interaction with the concerns of society and so that the major social issues are discussed and resolved within institutions and by their members, either the elected representatives, decision-makers, or executors.

Within the House organs and political components, we have sought to develop the House's control function and embody the constitutional principle of accountability and work within the framework of cooperation and complementarity between authorities so that public policies, programs, and interventions affect the lives of citizens.

In selecting the themes for the control sittings, we opted for the ones required by the national context through a methodology of consultation, consensus, and mutual listening at the level of the House organs and components and between the House organs and the executive branch.

The revision and enrichment of the Rules of Procedure of the House to conform to the provisions of the 2011 Constitution and several organic laws was a key factor in increasing the attractiveness and efficiency of the plenary control sittings, working with a sectorial approach, and adopting smart measures to allocate time for additional comments to ensure the participation of the largest number of the House members and the various political trends in discussing each sector in every sitting.

The House has also intensified its control mechanisms through the standing committees by auditioning and questioning Government members and officials of public institutions and enterprises and through exploratory missions and the discussion of the reports of the Court of Accounts.

The discussion of these reports and the reports of exploratory missions formed an important achievement for the House, which contributed to starting a rich public debate on issues that captured the public's attention. It will undoubtedly be a tributary for implementing the principle of accountability and consolidating the governance of public services.

During the tenth legislature, we noted and collectively ensured, within the Board, the chairpersons of the parliamentary groups and caucus, that there were no red lines in the control of the management of public institutions by questioning their heads or directors in the presence of the concerned ministers. The recommendations that crowned the committees' reports and deliberations had a major impact on the political, institutional, and media attention to the situation of public institutions, their position in the national economy, and their role in development.

One of the central conclusions that can be drawn during the tenth legislature concerning the exercise of the House's powers is the general tendency to override the acts of legislation and put more focus into control and evaluation, which is understandable and legitimate in the general global context characterized by openness, the high demands of societies regarding the need for governance and transparency, and the constitutional and national institutional context that raises the stakes of accountability for transparency.

This conclusion or shift (if you will) poses several challenges for the parliamentary elites and involves several requirements that need to be ensured, including ameliorating production, productive presence, not wasting parliamentary and political time, and particularly following the standard recommendations and proposals to improve public policies, their productivity and to identify their impact on society. This conclusion also entails communication between the House components, the Government, and the public opinion, and giving real substance to the constitutional provision of cooperation, complementarity, and balance of powers. Our collective goal remains, of course, to strengthen trust in institutions, increase their credibility and make the exercise of their prerogatives, functions, and missions of benefit to policies.

The accumulation of requests for exploratory missions by standing committees requires us to review the way the Board handles authorizing such missions in a manner that spares us conflicts of interest, failure to complete such missions (considering that out of the 27 missions authorized by the Board, only the reports of four missions were presented before the plenary sitting), non-repetition of missions on the same or a related theme, and enables authorizing the same committee to run several missions. We face the imperative to establish real governance for these missions to remain as credible as required in such a control mechanism.

In turn, there are several stakes in the quest to advance the evaluation of public policies and programs. While the House of Representatives has accumulated expertise of no less importance, value, and quality than what is standard in old democracies, just ten years after its constitutionalization, this period is sufficient to draw some lessons, especially since the concept of evaluation is a central theme in the report on the new development model that our country will embark on. The first lesson is the imperative of preparing for the evaluation process in advance by the agreement on an annual theme for evaluation at the end of each legislative year, which would help complete at least one evaluation task each legislative year.

Secondly, the number of representatives of each group and caucus in the thematic working group should be doubled to ease task assignment among its members, which will be compiled later.

The evaluation process should be scheduled and respected. The schedule must include the milestones, completion dates of each sub-task, the dates of completion of fieldwork, and the drafting and presentation of the report.

For the exercise of this new constitutional prerogative to be effective and to produce an impact and a benefit on the quality of public policies, it should monitor the fate of the recommendations and conclusions of each evaluation. If this monitoring is a task of the House of Representatives through the control of government action and legislation, the executive branch is then just as much responsible through the obligation of implementing the recommendations, especially those that are agreed upon during the plenary sitting devoted to the discussion of the report of the thematic group. Otherwise, the question of the feasibility and purposes of this action will remain on the table.

Dear Colleagues,

Morocco and the rest of the world are going through a tough period of history due to COVID-19. Nevertheless, our country has successfully managed, under the leadership of His Majesty the King, to limit the pandemic and its repercussions. This management can be summed up under three headlines, or, if I may, three major achievements:

• The first was to address the pandemic, limit its spread, manage its economic and social repercussions, and manage the period of quarantine through solidarity approaches and procedures and the effective presence of state institutions, which has limited the health, social and economic impacts of the pandemic.
• The second one is the success in the vaccination battle amidst an international context marked by sharp competition for vaccines. Our country is ranked among the world's leading countries in vaccination, thanks to the Royal commitment to provide our country with vaccines and thanks to the confidence, high esteem, and respect that His Majesty enjoys at the international level. The public authorities, particularly the Ministries of Interior and Health, have managed the campaign effectively and successfully.
• Finally, we won the bet of producing and bottling vaccines and committed to sharing the production with our brothers in African countries.

All of these successes reflect the valuable, strong, determined, and honest leadership by His Majesty the King of the country in this exceptional and difficult international juncture.

The indications are that our country is transforming the crisis caused by the pandemic into opportunities for rising and advance and is winning the bet to re-launch a robust economic dynamic for the post-COVID era while winning the bet of continued democratization and stability.

The Royal Institution was, still is, and will continue to be the decisive factor in all of this. The monarchy was the basis for social cohesion, guaranteed the continuity of the State, ensured the respect of the Constitution and the proper functioning of institutions, safeguarded the democratic choice as stipulated in the Constitution, and was the axis and pillar of consensus.

This has been facilitated by our country's position as an emerging democracy built upon rich cultural diversity, solid political pluralism, and a modern liberal democratic constitution, which in turn was the fruit of numerous amendments, agreements, and national dialogue among the various components of the nation.

These gains always need to be preserved, valued, and refined to ensure their sustainability and ownership by the components of society, thereby providing protection against the risks of regression, tension, extremism, sectarianism, and obscurantism.

In a global context where democracies face many challenges and seek to renew themselves, we in Morocco should cherish our democratic traditions and work to consolidate our political and democratic culture and seek consensus on major reforms that strengthen and consolidate our modernizing democratic model.

Reliance on consensus is not a cancelation, nor should it cancel difference, which we consider the basis of democracy. The adoption of consensus should not be tactical, circumstantial, or occasional but should be a part of the political culture and democracy.

I believe that consensus can help avoid sectarianism in history and partnerships, so entrenching it as a thought, culture, and management philosophy will be nothing but beneficial for stability and broadening the participation base.

In connection with the features of this phase and the current context in our country, characterized by the continuation of reforms and the keenness of His Majesty the King Mohammed VI to give new impetus to all life aspects, we should stress that Morocco, at the end of the tenth legislature, is launching a new phase of economic, institutional, and social reforms. It has already embarked on transformations and transitions in various fields, with all the challenges they pose, of course, which require our collective intelligence and mobilization behind His Majesty the King.

These transitions can be summed up in the following three major ones:

- The first is that our country will adopt and implement a new development model, which entails legislative, legal and institutional, control and evaluation requirements.

- In the context of this new model and its social dimensions, the second transition is that our country is about to undergo a decisive transition in the field of social protection. It is not only about giving solidarity and aid a modern legal, institutional, citizen meaning with the contribution of different parties, but mainly about strategic investment in citizens and ensuring their rights to quality health services, to a good and productive education that facilitates equal opportunities and access to social ascension, to addressing fragility and disparities, and to a comfortable and dignified retirement.

- In connection with these aspired ambitious social and economic transformations, and to meet their financial requirements, His Majesty King Mohammed VI has ordered the creation of the "Mohammed VI Investment Fund," as a strategic investment fund for financing, which complements tax reform and restructuring public institutions and enterprises and their involvement and competencies.

Out of objectivity, gratitude, recognition, and due respect, we should reaffirm that His Majesty King Mohammed VI is leading Morocco through these major ambitious renewing projects, amidst these tough national and international contexts, with wisdom, proactive vision, and foresight towards the welfare state model, which has become an imperative in the context of Covid-19. He is leading the Kingdom to its development model, which is adapted to its context, history, and particularities as an age-old deep-rooted State that already holds the traditions of the State, being indeed an entrenched State in history.

These major and qualitative projects and structural reforms put the legislative institution, political components, and elites before historical responsibilities and require exceptional mobilization and preservation that results in accumulation. Thus, the goal remains to achieve Morocco's progress and immunity, consolidate democracy, improve the efficiency of institutions within the framework of our democratic, modernist, and solidarity model, where the Moroccan people and its active forces are rallying behind His Majesty King Mohammed VI, who leads Morocco in its ascension and emergence as a democratic and economic power towards a high continental and international position.

Dear Colleagues,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our accomplishments result from collective efforts of the various components and organs of the House, both those of the majority and the opposition, and we could not have achieved them without the collective engagement and mobilization and the cooperation between the legislative and executive branches. I want to thank all those who contributed to these achievements. I would also like to thank you, my dear colleagues, in whom I found kind support and assistance to perform the mission I was honored to carry as a Speaker of the House of Representatives. I would also like to thank the House officials and personnel for their constant willingness to assist the political components of the House in performing their functions.

I want to thank, additionally, the bodies that work day and night at the institution as it performs its tasks to ensure its safety, and I mention here police officers, the personnel of the Royal Armed Forces, and civil protection personnel. Besides, I would like, of course, to thank and express appreciation to cleaners and other maintenance workers, who provide us with all the conditions to work comfortably. To conclude, I would like to thank the media and journalists who followed the House action through analysis, commentary, and criticism.

Thank you for listening.