Address of the Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami At the Opening of the Second Legislative Session of the Second Legislative Year of the 11th Legislative Term

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful, and may prayers and peace be upon the noblest of his messengers,

Distinguished Madam Minister,

Distinguished Ministers,

Honorable Representatives,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Pursuant to the provisions set forth in the Constitution and the Rules of Procedure of the House of Representatives, we open today the proceedings of the Second Legislative Session of the second legislative year of the 11^th Legislative Term at the level of plenary sittings.

As this opening coincides with the last ten days of the holy month of Ramadan, we beseech God the Almighty that He protects the Commander of the Faithful, His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God glorify Him, grants him perpetual health and wellness, and assists him and paves his way as the leader of the development march, the symbol of the glory and pride of this country, and the guarantor of its territorial integrity and supreme interests.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As I had mentioned on previous occasions, one of the attributes of our parliamentary system is that, with the exception of plenary sittings, the House of Representatives pursues its work throughout the year at the level of the other organs, meaning the Board, the Standing Committees, the Thematic Working Groups, and the Exploratory Missions, as well as at the level of external relations and parliamentary diplomacy.

As you can notice, this continuation in work enables us to ameliorate our outcomes and deepen the debate on the questions subjected to control, legislation, and evaluation. It also helps us in managing parliamentary time more efficiently and seamlessly, and the outcomes of the proceedings of the House during the inter-session period of the second legislative year of the 11^th Legislative Term attest to that. In this respect, and with regard to legislation, the Standing Committees worked on constitutive government bills that would regulate a new generation of reforms reflected in public policies, programs, and interventions.

The bills in question cover social insurance, health insurance, medicines, the human resources operating in the health sector, and the central and territorial organization of the sector. These bills serve as a framework for the major transition launched by our country in the area of social protection, universalization of medical services, and facilitation of access to them by the entire population, thus embodying the notion of the Welfare State as a Royal project that enjoys the high solicitude of His Majesty the King and requires the engagement of all social actors given its nobility and objectives.

In addition to our keenness within the House of Representatives to ameliorate and adopt the said texts, we are also required to control their application, diagnose their positive impact on the various social strata, and continuously monitor the level of improvement of health and social protection indices and the achievement of quality health services.

At the level of Government control and the relations with the other constitutional institutions and governance bodies, the Standing Committees examined, during the inter-session period, 16 themes proposed by the Parliamentary Groups and Caucus or by the Standing Committees themselves following the procedures in force. In this respect, the members of the Standing Committees called to account the Ministers and officials of public institutions on timely policies and questions.

In this same vein, allow me to clarify that, alongside their work in legislation, the Standing Committees worked extensively in the field of control as they examined several timely questions that concern the public opinion in the presence of the members of the Government and the officials of public institutions.

In this regard, and during more than 110 meetings, the Committees examined 220 themes since the start of the ongoing Legislative Term, more than 60 of which were examined during the First Session and the inter-session period of the second legislative year.

This dynamism reflects a further inclination by the House towards control and the spontaneous interaction of the legislative and executive branches with the concerns of citizens and the public opinion.

In the meantime, the Representatives in charge of conducting exploratory missions pursued their fieldwork, as some have finalized and adopted the related reports while others have made progress in fieldwork.

In terms of content, the themes of this control axis are linked to the national context and the citizens' concerns in a way that mirrors the keenness of the legislative institution to put the concerns of society and the public opinion at the heart of its action. Thus, the control over prices and the factors that impact their determination, including the networks of marketing and distribution of agricultural products, health control over food products, solidarity economy, energy prices, and industrial acceleration, were central axes of the control action of the House in its various constitutional aspects.

It is this same course of action that was taken in public policy evaluation by the thematic working groups created by the House to that end. Whether it is the water policy amidst a context of drought, the repercussions of climate imbalances, and water scarcity, the diagnosis of the impact of the implementation of the law on combatting violence against women, or the administrative reform, they are all decisive questions for the sustainable development of our country and its economic, democratic, and human rights progress. It is also a matter of great national choices and stakes.

If the public policy operations we conduct are legitimate and democratic, are run with the contribution of the parliamentary majority and opposition, and feature hearing the actors in each public policy under evaluation and its beneficiaries, we must, nonetheless, as legislative and executive branches, build on the achievements in the field of evaluation and exploit the agreed-upon recommendations and conclusions in order to redress the imbalances in the policies under evaluation and propose reforms in a way that makes the practice of this parliamentary prerogative productive of impact on society and so that the public spending achieves its aspired imprint.

The outcomes of exploratory missions are undoubtedly another rich theme that we must work with the legislative branch to translate into practical measures.

The same orientation must be adopted regarding the reports issued by the other constitutional institutions and governance bodies to implement their suggestions and efforts within the framework of convergent policies, laws, and homogenous and complementary reforms whose impact the citizens can feel in their daily lives. Such an action must be undertaken with strict respect to the provisions of the Constitution that must always be invoked, particularly those related to cooperation, balance, and complementarity of branches.

Ladies and gentlemen,

We are called upon, during this Session, as part of our work program in legislation, control, and evaluation, to intensify the discussion of all the finalized reports elaborated by the thematic working groups in charge of evaluation or those drafted by the Representatives in charge of conducting exploratory missions, and to agree with the Government on the applicable recommendations and conclusions.

In this respect, I commend the contribution of all the Parliamentary Groups and Caucus to the work dynamism recorded during the inter-session period, particularly with regard to questions. In this regard, the oral questions deposited amounted to 880, most of which cover timely matters, while the number of written questions reached 856. Concerning the legislative initiatives of the Representatives, 18 parliamentary bills were presented, knowing that these initiatives will be granted peculiar attention as of this Session.

Distinguished Ministers,

Honorable colleagues,

Ladies and gentlemen,

We inaugurate this Session amidst an unstable world context at the economic and geopolitical levels, given the aggravation of polarization and the strong resurgence of the alliance phenomenon in international relations. These relations are recently governed by the principle of direct interests and feature most frequently actions built on national egoisms and pragmatism that unfortunately narrow the relevance of values. We must, hence, recall all these factors in our proceedings through the vigilant and active presence and through keenness to make our productivity effective. Such an action is nothing but a performance of our duties, assumption of our missions and responsibilities, and contribution to the development of our country, the consolidation of our parliamentary practice, and the entrenchment of our territorial integrity under the wise leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God glorify him, and following His Majesty’s sharp vision.

Our dense work program at the internal level will surely not inhibit us from pursuing our work at the external relations front following the vision of His Majesty and the credo and philosophy of national diplomacy as established by His Majesty.

Following our contribution, as House components, to the work record of our institution in this field during the inter-session period, we are foreseeing prominent international parliamentary meetings, and we will be hosting one of their most important ones next June.

An intense work program awaits us then, and we must implement it with the required efficiency and efficacy, just as we must interact and respond to the concerns of the public opinion and transition from diagnosis and monitoring to execution, and pursue our mission of making the representative institutions the platforms where the concerns of society are discussed and where disagreement is settled, regardless of its degree or delicacy, for institutions are the constitutional framework to settle disagreements and differences, and for dialogue and democracy are the means to resolve problems under all circumstances and conditions. Unity, which does not negate difference, pluralism, and diversity, is of course our path to address the challenges that our country faces amidst the current global transformations.

Let us all then rise to the occasion and address these challenges, each from their constitutional and institutional position, in order to win the bet of the positive transitions and transformations achieved by our country and its ascent under the leadership of His Majesty the King, may God glorify him.

Thank you for your keen listening.