Launch of Morocco-European Union Twinning: "Support to the House of Representatives of the Kingdom of Morocco”

A new institutional twinning between the House of Representatives of the Kingdom of Morocco and the French National Assembly, with the participation of the Czech Chamber of Deputies and the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, was launched in early May 2022. With the support of four other EU Member States, namely Italy, Greece, Hungary, and Portugal, the twinning project will contribute to the mobilization of around 70 international experts from seven different parliaments, reflecting the full diversity of parliamentary practices.

This 24-month EU-funded project for the “Support of the House of Representatives of the Kingdom of Morocco” was signed at the end of April 2022 by Mr. Rachid Talbi El Alami, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Kingdom of Morocco, and Mr. Richard Ferrand, Speaker of the French National Assembly, and approved by Mr. Jean-Christophe Filori, Head of the European Union's Cooperation Division in Morocco.

The project’s overall objective is to contribute to the capitalization of the achievements of the House of Representatives in the exercise of its constitutional competences and missions by prioritizing a peer-to-peer, durable implementation based on comparative analysis, co-construction, and action learning to maximize the transfer of skills.

The twinning project will also make use of traditional methodologies, such as situation analysis, feasibility studies, and development of action plans, in addition to training and exchange workshops in small groups. The project also includes study visits, which will be an opportunity for the representatives and officers of the House to exchange with their counterparts in the partner European Union Member States on the selected themes and allow for communication between the assemblies and their administrations.

This twinning project, which is part of the more general framework of "Support to the Moroccan Parliament," aims to strengthen the EU-Morocco partnership in coordination with other ongoing initiatives, including the joint program of the Council of Europe for the benefit of both Houses. It also features a prominent "gender" dimension that aims to improve the feminization of the senior management positions of the House’s administration and promote women's participation in parliamentary activity through the creation of a forum of women parliamentarians and the organization of study visits.

Besides, this new institutional twinning project is a continuation of the previous one carried out between 2016 and 2018 and testifies to the historical and firm relations linking the Kingdom of Morocco and the European Union by further improving the performance and efficiency of the House at the level of its administration and its legislative work, control, and evaluation, to get closer to the best European practices, hence the importance of combining the experience and qualities of three assemblies (France, Belgium, Czech Republic), each of which has its characteristics and specific fields of expertise.

This project can benefit from various assets, including:

- the quality of the actors involved, which reflects the full diversity of parliamentary practices in Europe;

- the adaptation of the response to the needs expressed by the House of Representatives;

- its global and integrated nature, which is consistent with the steps already taken under the leadership of His Majesty the King, particularly when launching the work of the Special Commission on the New Development Model and, more generally, through the values advocated by the Constitution of the Kingdom.