Lower House Speaker Calls for Deeper Partnership with PACE

The Moroccan Parliament aspires to a more advanced status and a deeper partnership with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), to build on what has been achieved in terms of bilateral relations and enhance the democratic and institutional maturity reached by the Kingdom, Rachid Talbi Alami, Speaker of the House of Representatives, said on Tuesday. Speaking at the opening of the two-day “Seminar on the Evaluation of Laws by the Parliamentary Institution”, organized by the Moroccan Parliament, PACE and the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), Alami said that promoting the partnership between the Moroccan Parliament and PACE is also a recognition of the important multidimensional institutional reforms undertaken by the Kingdom, and a consolidation of its regional and international positioning. He praised the existing partnership between the European Union and the House of Representatives, in terms of “supporting democracy and facilitating exchanges and dialogue between the House of Representatives and a number of European national legislative institutions”, as evidenced by the second twinning project, currently being implemented. “As part of their efforts to meet the challenges facing democracy in the 21 st century, including anti-institutional tendencies, declining political commitment and electoral abstention, many parliaments are strengthening their organs and missions, in particular by evaluating and monitoring public policies and programs”, Talbi Alami underlined. The lower house’s speaker noted that these efforts give new impetus to democratic practice, participation and trust in institutions, adding that the evaluation of laws is at the heart of this innovative approach to parliamentary practice, being one of the characteristics of the new democracy. The seminar, attended by members of parliament, experts, academics and representatives of the Venice Commission, PACE and the European Union in Morocco, aims to build the capacity of parliamentarians and administrative officials from the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors in the field of law evaluation. The seminar is organized as part of the “Support for the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture and the Development of the Role of Parliament in Morocco 2020-2024” program, financed by the European Union and implemented by the Council of Europe, supported by the South V program “Protecting human rights, the rule of law and democracy through shared standards in the southern Mediterranean”.