House of Representatives Adopts Four Government Bills and One Parliamentary Bill

The House of Representatives adopted unanimously on Tuesday, June 29, 2021, four Government bills relating respectively to medical practice, the creation of a foundation for the promotion of social works for the employees of the maritime fisheries department, the real estate system of communes, and civil registry. In addition, the House also adopted a parliamentary bill relating to the Family Code. The adoption of the bills took place in two plenary sittings chaired by Speaker of House of Representatives Habib El Malki with the participation of Minister of Health Khalid Aït Taleb and Minister Delegate to the Minister of Interior Noureddine Boutayeb.

In his presentation of Government Bill 33.21 amending and supplementing Law 131.13 on medical practice, Minister of Health Khalid Aït Taleb noted that the Bill follows the high Royal directives where His Majesty called for studying the possibility of opening some of the sectors and professions that are not currently accessible to foreigners to some qualitative initiatives and foreign human resources.

The Bill aims to remedy the human resources shortage in the health sector by increasing the number of personnel. The Bill also aims to review the conditions that hinder the recruitment of foreign doctors and Moroccan doctors residing abroad. Besides, the Bill aims to guarantee the right to treatment and health care in alignment with Framework Law 09.21 on social protection.

The House of Representatives also adopted Government Bill 93.17. The Bill stipulates the creation of a foundation for promoting social works in favor of the employees and auxiliaries of the maritime fisheries department, their families, and the retirees from the department. The Bill aims to advance the social services provided for these categories in a way that meets their aspirations.

As for Government Bill 57.19 on the real estate system of communes, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Interior Noureddine Boutayeb noted that the Bill is part of pursuing the reform of the decentralization system in our country following the high directives of His Majesty King Mohammed VI that called for enhancing the role of communes as strategic partners in achieving development in its holistic dimension.

The aforementioned Bill aims to transform the real estate of communes into a supportive mechanism to achieve development programs, implement broad regionalization, and angles updating the system of public and private real estate of communes. The Bill also aims to unify and simplify the procedural and administrative procedures related to real estate and exempt communes from taxes and fees emanating from local real estate transactions.

During the general discussion, the representatives lauded the said Bill considering the importance of real estate as part of the in-house resources of communes and their role in local development. The representatives agreed on the importance of this Bill in updating the management of the real estate system and moving it to be a lever to establishing governance and transparency in managing and attracting investments and to supporting the decentralization project in our country. They also made several remarks on the challenges relating to the application of this Bill, noting some shortcomings in territorial management.

Government bill 36.21 on the civil registry is part of the National Program to Modernize Civil Registry. It aims to create a digital system upon several bases such as the digital system for recording vital events, the civil registry platform, the digital civil and social ID, the e-signature of civil status certificates, the online exchange of civil registry data, and the national civil status registry.

During the second plenary sitting, the House adopted a parliamentary bill amending and supplementing Article 15 of Law 70.03 operating as the Family Code, referred by the House of Councilors. The Bill aims to resolve the issues of the Moroccan expatriates and overcome the difficulties they encounter during the conclusion of marriages in their countries of residence. The amendment has preserved the provision enacting the deposit of copies of these certificates with the Moroccan consulates in the countries where the marriages have been concluded and added to it the possibility of depositing copies of these contracts at the Moroccan consulates of the address of residence of the applicant of for the registry, to facilitate these procedures.