Speaker of House of Representatives Meets Chairpersons of Parliamentary Groups and Caucus on April 20th, 2020

Speaker of House of Representatives Habib El Malki held a meeting with the chairpersons of parliamentary groups and caucus on Monday, April 20^th, 2020. The meeting was devoted to discussing the House’s agenda regarding legislation and control.

At the beginning of the meeting, the House’s Speaker presented a summary of the House’s work on the level of standing committees. He also presented the House’s work regarding its interaction with the High Royal initiative to establish an operational framework to assist African countries at the different stages of their management of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Then, and following his presentation of the lofty goals of the noble Royal initiative in sharing experiences and achieving health and human security in their comprehensive aspects, the House’s Speaker briefed the participants on the parliamentary action to involve regional and continental organizations, mainly the Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie, the Pan-African Parliament, the African Parliamentary Union, through calling them to include the management of the health, social, and economic impacts of the pandemic in their next meetings.

The meeting also discussed the legal framework relative to our country’s healthcare system, and the imperative of its development in a way that achieves the goals of implementing the strategic programs and orientations relative to this sector. The discussion was an opportunity to reiterate the pride and appreciation of the efforts and sacrifices made by all health officials during the ongoing health conditions. The participants also agreed on establishing an interim thematic working group, whose mission is to prepare studies and proposals that would contribute to enriching the legislative record in its various professional and institutional aspects.

As regards communication with the national public opinion, Mr. Habib El Malki noted that the latter had positively received the open meetings held lately by the standing committees. These meetings have also enabled a closer follow-up of the parliamentary efforts of conveying the citizens’ concerns and defending them.

In the same respect, the House’s Speaker suggested a proposal aiming at reinforcing this communication approach. The proposal consists of establishing a special platform to receive the demands, suggestions, recommendations, and opinions of citizens freely and responsibly. The data and views gathered in this platform should be made available to all the House’s components to utilize them through their constitutional competences in control, legislation, and evaluation of public programs and policies.

On weekly Government control, the meeting suggested to include the economic and financial situation as the theme of the plenary session that will be held on Monday, April 27^th. The session will follow the same format of the previous session, consisting of oral questions followed by discussion. The matter will be referred to the House’s Board to decide on the finalized agenda of the session.

Besides, the meeting tackled legislation, with respect to both Government and parliamentary bills. In this respect, the participants agreed to hold a plenary session on Tuesday, April 21^st, to examine and vote on the Government bill enacting special measures for employers and employees registered with the National Social Security Fund and affected by the Coronavirus outbreak.

Also, the chairpersons of parliamentary groups and caucus recalled their suggestions of parliamentary bills that cover a set of issues imposed by the exceptional health, social, and legal conditions ongoing in our country.