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In His Reception of a Delegation of Civil Society Bodies, Speaker of House of Representatives Affirms Keenness of the House to Advance Cooperation Ties with Them
Speaker of the House of Representatives Habib El Malki received a delegation of civil society bodies on Tuesday, January 26th, 2021, at the House's headquarters. The delegation was formed of the Chair of the Advisory Panel with Civil Society at the Tangier-Tetouan-Houceima Regional Council Abdeslam Damoun, Permanent Representative of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Morocco Steffen Kroger, Chair of the Mediterranean Institution for Cooperation and Development Nacer Lafqih Lanjri, and other members.
In this meeting, attended by Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Meriama Boujamaa, the delegation members presented the distinguished experience of cooperation between the elected bodies and the civil society ones with support from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in the Tangier-Tetouan-Houceima region in the area of implementing sustainable development goals, in consolidating openness and communication with citizens through creating the “Citizen Office” in several communes of the region, and in promoting participatory democracy at the local level.
The delegation lauded the openness of the House of Representatives and its role in achieving sustainable development goals. They also called for elaborating a legal framework to generalize the “Citizen Office” experience in all the Kingdom regions, so it can be a single window and interface for the services performed by the elected bodies to citizens.
For his part, the Speaker of the House of Representatives affirmed that civil society is the “real guarantor of plurality.” He also noted that the Kingdom’s Constitution stipulates civil society's importance as a key factor in advancing the democratic construction in our country. Besides, the Speaker added that the House of Representatives has created, during the ongoing legislature, a Petitions and Motions Committee, and taken several initiatives to consolidate communication with the civil society bodies.
Mr. El Malki also expressed the House's strong will to advance the cooperation ties with civil society bodies and stressed its engagement in achieving sustainable development, in which "our country has engaged seriously." In this respect, he noted specifically the hosting by Morocco of the Climate Summit COP22 in Marrakech in 2016 and the Kingdom’s world-known leadership in the sector of renewable energies.