Speaker of the House of Representatives Receives Deputy Speaker of the French National Assembly

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami  received on Thursday, September 22, 2022, in Rabat, the Deputy Speaker of the French National Assembly, Ms. Valérie Rabault and her entourage, as part of her visit to the Kingdom to participate in the inaugural ceremony of the Institutional Twinning Program, to be held on Friday, September 23, 2022, between the Moroccan House of Representatives, the French National Assembly, the Belgian Chamber of Representatives and the Czech Chamber of Deputies.

The delegation of the French National Assembly is comprised of Ms. Mireille CLAPOT, Vice-Chairperson of the Foreign Relations Committee, Dep. Karim Bencheikh, Mr. Jean-Luc LALA, Director of European and International Affairs and Defense, Mr. Jean-Baptiste LECLERE, Head of the Cooperation and Bilateral Relations Department, and Mr. Pierre-Nicolas Guedson, Officer-in-Charge of the Twinning Project at the French National Assembly.

At the outset of the meeting, Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami welcomed the Deputy Speaker of the French National Assembly and her entourage, expressing his pride at the progress of bilateral and multilateral parliamentary relations and the positive outcomes achieved so far. He further reiterated the significance of institutional spaces in terms of consultation, confrontation of challenges, and work in a judicious manner. In the same vein, the Speaker of the House also gave an overview of the Moroccan democratic experience, parliamentary system, and the most outstanding achievements, projects and workshops led by the Kingdom under the wise leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI.

For their part, Ms. Valérie Rabault, and the accompanying delegation, expressed their satisfaction with the meeting and the visit, which aim at consolidating the depth of the Moroccan-French parliamentary friendship. In this respect, she stressed that the joint programs, agreements and projects between the House of Representatives and the French National Assembly shall strengthen direct communication and exchange of expertise and experience, which remains one of the core objectives of parliamentary diplomacy. Moreover, the Deputy Speaker of the French National Assembly expressed her admiration for the achievements of the Kingdom and the ongoing projects it leads on various levels.

The talks between the two sides also focused on bilateral and multilateral parliamentary relations and ways to strengthen them, as they shed light on a number of issues of common parliamentary concern such as migration and cultural exchange. The Speaker of the House, the Deputy Speaker of the French National Assembly, and her entourage emphasized the role of legislative institutions and parliamentarians in promoting dialogue, consultation and clarification of views and positions, which would promote bilateral and multilateral relations and strengthen them institutionally, as envisaged by the projects and programs of cooperation, exchange of experiences and expertise, and the Morocco-France Parliamentary Forum.

The new Institutional Twinning between the Kingdom of Morocco and the European Union, which brings together the House of Representatives of the Kingdom of Morocco, the French National Assembly, the Czech Chamber of Deputies and the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, with the support of the legislative institutions of the four Member States of the European Union, namely Greece, Hungary, Italy and Portugal, was also at the core of the discussions between Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami, Ms. Valérie Rabault and her entourage.

The Twinning Program, which will last for two years, aims to mobilize about 70 international experts from the seven parliaments to benefit from various legislative practices and to contribute to the achievements of the House of Representatives in the exercise of its constitutional competencies and institutional functions, especially through the exchange of experiences and the completion of comparative studies on parliamentary practices in twinning institutions, training and transfer of skills.

This Program envisages also the preparation of practical guides, completion of diagnostic studies, feasibility studies, action plans, organization of training workshops, dialogue and exchange in small groups, conduct of visits and study missions between the members and officers of the Moroccan House of Representatives and their counterparts in the twinning legislative institutions of the EU Member States on the axes outlined in the Twinning Document. Besides, the Twinning Program aims at promoting communication and dialogue, extending bridges of cooperation, and building relations between the legislative institutions.

Additionally, the said Program, which falls under the umbrella of the project "Support to the Moroccan Parliament," aims at strengthening the partnership between the Kingdom of Morocco and the European Union and complements other ongoing initiatives, in particular the program implemented by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe with the two Houses of the Moroccan Parliament, which is financed by the European Union. It also has an important dimension of supporting women in positions of representative and executive responsibilities.

It should be noted that the new institutional twinning is a continuation of the twinning program that brought the House of Representatives together with European Parliaments over the period 2016-2018, which confirms the long-standing and solid historical nature of the relations between the Kingdom of Morocco and the European Union.