Address of Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami, on Closure of Second Session of the 2021-2022 Legislative Year

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, and may prayers and peace be upon his noble messenger and his kith and kin

Esteemed Minister,

Honorable Representatives,

Ladies and gentlemen,

In accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives, we conclude today the proceedings of the second legislative session of the first legislative year of the 11^th Legislative Term at the level of plenary sittings, while the Standing Committees, the thematic working groups, and the other House bodies will pursue their ordinary course of action.

This conclusion coincides with the celebration of the Throne Day, which commemorates this year the 23^rd anniversary of the accession of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God glorify him, to the Throne of his glorious ancestors.

I seize this joyous opportunity to express to His Majesty the King the warmest congratulations, reiterating to His Majesty, on behalf of all the House components, the expressions of our allegiance and loyalty, imploring the Almighty to protect him and grant him perpetual health, and preserve the Crown Prince His Highness Moulay Hassan and all the members of the noble Royal family.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The traditions of institutional work entail that we trace, upon the end of each legislative session, an inventory of the works of the House in the performance of its constitutional prerogatives, and institutional and political functions, to communicate with the public opinion, enrich the public debate, and implement the right of electors to access information and data, so that they are aware of the performance of the institution, particularly in terms of the actions they have not been able to witness live, which is the greater, deeper, and foundational work.

In this respect, the House continued to perform its constitutional prerogatives and institutional functions of control, legislation, evaluation of public policies, and parliamentary diplomacy. The House also diversified its initiatives in interaction with the national and global context, and particularly with the aspirations and hopes of Moroccan society.

The tendency towards control in all its branches and to evaluation actions in our House’s proceedings reflects our collective institutional keenness, as Majority and Opposition, to interact and respond to the aspirations of society. This tendency also embodies the new dynamics of institutional action and a sort of transition in the proceedings of the legislative institution.

The proceedings of the Committees and the tenor of the minutes of our plenary sittings signal this new dynamic in parliamentary action. In this regard, I am of the conviction that this dynamic is positive, considering that it asserts that social issues and novelties have their echo within institutions that are empowered to discuss problems and find solutions within a framework of a dialogue between powers and political actors, and because the accumulation of such approaches contributes to the consolidation of institutional democratic traditions.

As for the control action of the Standing Committees, water management, the scarcity of this vital substance in several regions of the Kingdom due to the low rain and snowfalls prevailed over the interests of the various House components. The Standing Committees also paid particular attention to the issues of energy, given the spike in the prices of energy materials at the international level and the measures taken to mitigate the impact of this rise on the costs of services and consumer goods, hence on the purchasing power of citizens. The Committees discussed other themes, including national sports and summer camps.

The interest of the House components was in the same direction with regard to the practice of the control prerogative of exploratory missions. On this, the Board of the House authorized the conduct of four missions entrusted with the collection of information on:

1- the state of agricultural products distribution and marketing networks;

2- the measures taken to make the 2022 Marhaba operation successful;

3- children summer camps;

4- the state of the Oum Rabii river estuary.

In the same vein, we, the Board of the House of Representatives, committed, alongside the Chairpersons of the Parliamentary Groups and Caucus, to the by-laws of the exploratory missions, in order to utilize parliamentary time adequately, avoid conflict of interest, establish their reports in a professional and objective manner, and avoid the waste of effort through ensuring that the Representatives entrusted with the missions conclude their works in a reasonable time.

Honorable colleagues,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Concerning questions, timely issues captured the attention of the Representatives in their questions for the Government. Accordingly, the two sittings for oral questions on general policy to the Head of Government covered two timely and prominent issues, namely the economic strategy of our country to address the global imbalances and the obstacles and challenges of our health system. On this matter, I do not need to recall the importance, timeliness, and inclusiveness of these two issues and their link to the national context.

The weekly oral questions to the members of the Government followed the same approach as they mostly covered issues of water scarcity, energy, agriculture, food sovereignty, social dialogue, employment, social protection, education, and other issues that were tackled by more than 1300 oral questions addressed by the Representatives to the Government. The latter responded to more than 300 questions that were scheduled following the related procedures, 73 of which were timely questions. In the meantime, the House members addressed to the Government more than 2200 written questions, out of which 1400 were responded to by the Government.

As regards Government pledges, we have initiated the implementation of the provisions of the Rules of Procedure covering this control aspect at the level of Standing Committees, following Rule 114 of the Rules of Procedure. Accordingly, we inventoried 222 pledges at the level of Standing Committees and 73 at the level of plenary sittings. We have also implemented the relative procedure concerning these pledges to correspond with the Government regarding their outcome.

As part of performing our legislative competence, the House of Representatives adopted 19 bills, including three parliamentary ones and 16 government bills, taking into consideration that eight of the texts adopted in this session are founding laws related to essential activities, services, and rights, such as the Government organic bill on disputing the constitutionality of laws, the Government bill on arbitration and mediation, the Government bill on the National Agricultural Register, the one on copyright, laws on covered bonds, the one on the establishment of a joint foundation for the promotion of social works for the employees of several ministries and public administrations, and the Government bill on the governance, modernization, and regulation of public charity. In the same regard, I should note that 95% of these texts were adopted by unanimity of votes, which reflects the unity of the political components of the House regarding the vital and core matters of our country and the strength of our institutional model that is based on consensus.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Under the evaluation of public policies, the three thematic working groups in charge of evaluating the “National Administration Reform Plan,” “the Green Morocco Plan,” and the “water policy” pursued their fieldwork at the central and territorial levels. In this vein, they held hearing sessions with all the stakeholders and parties that benefit from each public policy undergoing evaluation, keeping in mind the respect of the limitations of parliamentary assignment, the provisions of the Rules of Procedure, and the respect of the reference framework of the evaluation of public policies.

You are all aware of the particular importance of the policies under evaluation amidst the current context and the imperative of conducting evaluation actions that enable us to form a view on the achievements, their governance, and the means to enhance them through consensus on recommendations and conclusions that can be gates to new generations of reforms that improve the targeting and performance, and make public spending productive and fruitful.

On this occasion, I would like to commend the intense and thorough work of the Representatives in charge of conducting these evaluations, among which two are about to be concluded.

Given the importance of women’s rights in our country, and out of keenness to implement the laws related to these rights, the Board of the House of Representatives established a thematic working group in charge of evaluating the conditions and circumstances of the application of the law on combatting violence against women. We aspire that such evaluation would enable us to advance the proper application of the provisions of this law in a way that guarantees Moroccan women their rights and protects them from physical and moral violence.

In order to ensure efficient and further advantageous use of the reports and counseling opinions of the constitutional institutions and governance bodies, we ensured the referral of the said documents to the Standing Committees, each in their domain of specialization, to draw the necessary lessons and examine the possibility of their presentation before the plenary sittings of the House to enrich the public debate, make these reports productive at the level of legislation, the governance of public services, identify the impact of public policies and spending on society, and enable the proper utilization of their tenor.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Following the modalities of the foreign policy of the Kingdom, as determined and fostered by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God glorify him, and as part of coordination and cooperation with the official diplomacy and the House of Councilors, the House of Representatives pursued its work and active, impactful, and vigilant presence at the level of external relations and parliamentary diplomacy.

Accordingly, the House hosted and participated through its Speakership, Board, and parliamentary representations in around 30 regional, continental, and international multilateral general and thematic conferences and meetings. These events focused on timely issues, such as counter-terrorism, defense of peace and democracy, migration, human rights, the impact of the pandemic on the world’s economy, the environment, youth involvement in development, gender equality, and other issues.

In the meantime, the bilateral meetings held by the House, as Speakership, Board, and Parliamentary Groups and Caucus have exceeded 40 meetings.

The participation of the House in these conferences, meetings, and bilateral talks with various parliamentary officials was an opportunity to introduce and defend further the vital national causes, the primary of which is the cause of our territorial integrity and the development dynamic taking place in the Moroccan southern provinces, in addition to the involvement of our brothers and sisters from those provinces and their mobilization to win the development bet, and their enthusiastic participation in the various elections to choose the territorial and national institutions.

There is no doubt that our work at this level was facilitated by the reputation of our country and its continental and international positioning, and thanks to the proactive vision, wise policy, and prudence of His Majesty the King, may God glorify him.

One of the most prominent activities that the Moroccan Parliament hosted during this session was the Tenth Session of the International Parliament for Tolerance and Peace, which was held in Rabat and Dakhla and culminated in the “Dakhla Declaration.” The latter we consider to be a central, comprehensive, and prominent document that calls for the dissemination of the culture and values of tolerance, exchange, and diversity that link values to material, economic, political, and institutional principles.

Our country also hosted the 26^th  Extraordinary Session of the FOPREL, an opportunity for a rich and fruitful dialogue that foresees the future. It was also a chance to facilitate the consolidation of our ties with this geopolitical space. The Session culminated in the adoption of several important documents for joint action.

During this session, the Moroccan Parliament also hosted, in Rabat and Laayoune, the plenary session and the Morocco-Andean Community Parliamentary Forum, which was devoted to “Economic Cooperation, Commercial Exchange, and Energy Security,” in addition to a conference on “Food security.”

I do not need to reiterate the timeliness of these themes and the important messages implied in the reception of such events by our country, and particularly the determination of our friends to hold them in Rabat, Laayoune, and Dakhla.

As regards partnerships and global cooperation programs, we have initiated the implementation of the institutional twinning program financed by our historical partner, the European Union. The program links the House of Representatives to the legislative institutions of France, the Czech Republic, and Belgium, supported by the legislative institutions of Italy, Portugal, Hungary, and Greece. This step reflects the esteem for our country and our House and adds to the other cooperation programs being implemented in partnership with other international bodies.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Similarly to other countries, our country carries the burdens of three unprecedented global contexts in terms of intensity, extension, succession, and the challenges they produce. Following the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic, social, and costly financial repercussions, the world today pays the price of the war occurring in Eastern Europe and its impacts on the supply of primary materials, particularly fuels and cereals. Due to these two contexts, we face, just like the rest of the world countries, the rise in prices, particularly the prices of energy products, and their impacts on the living cost. In addition to these factors, the Kingdom of Morocco undergoes unprecedented drought, which has serious repercussions on agricultural production and waters.

Nevertheless, we are proud of our country’s capacity to absorb such shocks and the ability of the Moroccan economy to stand still, thanks to the reforms adopted by the Kingdom of Morocco for more than two decades under the wise leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God glorify him, who has led, and continues to lead the Kingdom of Morocco, with wisdom, prudence, foresight, and a proactive strategic vision, as demonstrated amidst the pandemic and other hardships.

In the face of the repercussions of these contexts, our country continues to accumulate reforms and transitions, including the universalization of social protection, at the core of which is the public health services, thereby reflecting the notion of the social welfare State. The Kingdom of Morocco also pursues its excellent quest to secure food and supply markets, despite the enormous pressure on the global supply markets and the exceptional climate circumstances that have touched our country this year, and the scarcity of water resources that we should all mobilize to manage appropriately and use in a rational and civil manner.

At the same time, our country continues to achieve its energy transition through several projects of energy production from eco-friendly renewable resources, considering that a part of its international engagements, a secure source of our needs from this material that is necessary to the economy and out of keenness to ensure energy independence and sovereignty. Regardless of the challenging global juncture, the Kingdom of Morocco continues to attract foreign direct and indirect investments and achieves positive indices in this area, particularly the rise in the flow of foreign investments.

These transitions and economic, social, and service-related achievements are undoubtedly growing stronger thanks to the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, his proactive and foreseeing vision, and the engagement of all the components of the Moroccan society and the entire national institutions and active forces of the country in this dynamic that embodies the capacity of the Kingdom of Morocco to turn crisis into advancement opportunities, and scarcity to innovation opportunities. It is also sure that the Moroccan renaissance finds its foundation and driving force in the strength of institutions, their entrenchment, deep roots, and continuity, founded upon a long-standing constitutional monarchy that fosters rights and democratic choice, and enjoys the consensus of all Moroccan people. Amidst global crises and a turbulent global context within several geopolitical areas, we must intensify the mobilization and consolidation of our institutions within the framework of our institutional model and the reinforcement of a unity that must not marginalize difference and diversity.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The current global context drives us to face profound geostrategic, economic, and social transformations that will indeed bind international relations and regional equilibria. Amidst these transformations, our country continues to strengthen its position as an emerging democratic power and reinforces its central role as a credible partner in building peace and achieving development. The Kingdom of Morocco also continues the consolidation of its historically legitimate rights of territorial integrity through the advocacy by several countries, among which are impactful powers in the international decision-making arena, of the positions of the Kingdom and its view on the resolution of the artificial conflict over our southern provinces, including the autonomy proposal, considering it the only, exclusive and doable solution to this conflict, under the sovereignty of the Kingdom over the retrieved territories and the integrity of its land from Tangier to La Güera.

There is no doubt that such a position is founded mainly on the policy of His Majesty the King, may God glorify him, and the development and institutional achievements on the ground, solidified by the unity of the Moroccan people around His Majesty the King, and the resilience and bravery of the Royal Armed Forces as they defend the borders. Therefore, I wish to extend to these forces and their Supreme Commander and Chief-of-Staff, His Majesty the King, my full gratitude, esteem, and respect.

To conclude, I want to thank you, honorable Representatives, distinguished Board members, and distinguished Chairpersons of the Parliamentary Groups and Caucus and Standing Committees. I also want to thank the Head and members of the Government for their cooperation and for the convergence of efforts that have led to such a record. Finally, I wish to thank the employees and agents of the House, and the police officers, for their efforts to ensure for us adequate work conditions.

Thank you for your keen listening.