Morocco-Hungary Parliamentary Friendship Group Holds Communication Meeting with Chairperson of Committee on Sustainable Development at Hungarian National Assembly
The Morocco-Hungary Parliamentary Friendship Group at the Moroccan House of Representatives and Hungarian National Assembly held on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, an online communication meeting with the Chairperson of the Committee on Sustainable Development at the Hungarian National Assembly. The meeting tackled sustainable development and the bilateral cooperation between the two countries.
The Moroccan side was represented by the Chairperson of the Morocco-Hungary Parliamentary Friendship Group Rep. Souad Boulaych Hajraoui, the member of the Infrastructure, Energy, Mining, and Environment Committee at the House of Representatives Rep. Abdelaziz El Ayed, and Rep. Abdelfettah El Aouni, a member of the Group. As for the Hungarian side, the latter was represented by Ms. Erzsébet Schmuck, the Chairperson of the Committee on Sustainable Development at the Hungarian National Assembly, Mr. Laszlo Borocs, a member of the Committee, Ms. Timea Szabo, the Chairperson of the Hungary-Morocco Parliamentary Friendship Group, and Mr. Laszlo Hajdu, a member of the Hungarian National Assembly. Hungarian Ambassador to Morocco Miklos Tromler also attended the meeting.
In his welcoming statement, the Hungarian Ambassador to Morocco lauded the initiative of holding the meeting despite the repercussions of COVID-19. He also shed light on the prosperity and dynamism marking the Morocco-Hungary relations in politics, economy, and scientific exchange. The year 2019 witnessed seven visits by senior officials of Hungary. The Ambassador also commended the role of parliamentary diplomacy, mainly the keen efforts of the two parliamentary friendship groups in stepping up the relations between the two countries. Mr. Tromler focused in his statement on the efforts of the Kingdom of Morocco in sustainable development, environment, and energy, lauding the peculiar personal attention given by His Majesty the King to the said sectors and the energy and climate strategies in Morocco.
From the Moroccan side, the Chairperson of the Morocco-Hungary Parliamentary Friendship Group Souad Boulaych Hajraoui highlighted the efforts done to advance the quality of relations between the two countries, expressing at the same time the “willingness of Morocco to open dialogue channels between the two countries, especially as Morocco is perceived positively in Hungary as a stable country that initiates big reforms and great projects under the leadership of His Majesty the King, which surely encourages openness to Hungary.” The Group Chairperson called for intensifying calls between Budapest and Rabat and reinforce trade exchange between the two countries as Morocco is the third economic partner of Hungary in Africa.
Rep. Abdelfettah El Aouni, the member of the Morocco-Hungary Parliamentary Friendship Group, focused his intervention on the "role that Morocco plays in the environmental sector, as it occupies a pioneering spot among the countries that produce renewable energies through several energy projects launched for this purpose." Mr. El Aouni added that “developing the agricultural sector in Morocco must go through preserving the water resources, which is what Morocco aspires for through its dam policy.”
After that, the Chairperson of the Committee on Sustainable Development at the Hungarian National Assembly, Erzsébet Schmuck, presented the realizations of the Committee she presides, which ensures the protection of the environment, natural resources, and environmental health, without disregarding the aspect of rationalizing the use of chemicals in agriculture and preserving livestock. The Committee on Sustainable Development also presents suggestions to the Hungarian National Assembly to protect the environment and limit gas emissions and pollution.
Rep. Abdelaziz El Ayed, a member of the Infrastructure, Energy, Mining, and Environment Committee at the House of Representatives, gave a brief overview of the Committee record, which includes legislation through a framework law relative to climate and Law 28.00 on waste management and disposal. Mr. El Ayed added that Morocco “has made tremendous strides in the area of renewable energies and clean energy, including the solar power stations Noor 1 and Noor 2, and the project of waste management, sorting, and recycling.”
In her interaction with Morocco's achievements in the sectors of Environment and sustainable development, the Chairperson of the Hungary-Morocco Parliamentary Friendship Group, Timea Szabo, expressed her appreciation of the great efforts of Morocco in preserving the Environment. In the same respect, she noted the challenges that Hungary faces in this area and revealed that her country faces serious environmental threats relating to forest fires and demise, the reduction in land fertility, the decline of livestock, and desertification.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Ms. Souad Boulaych Hajraoui expressed her hopes in opening doors of cooperation between the two countries, as the macroeconomic policy of Morocco facilitates attracting economic investments, especially the ones in the renewable energy sector, a premise shared by the Chairperson of the Committee on Sustainable Development at the Hungarian National Assembly, who expressed her optimism regarding the achievement of positive results in bilateral cooperation. Ms. Boulaych Hajraoui lauded the clear position of Budapest in favor of Morocco in the question of the Moroccan Sahara through the autonomy proposal, calling for advancing the level of parliamentary communication between Morocco and Hungary to the level of a parliamentary forum as suggested by the Speaker of the House of Representatives Habib El Malki.