Morocco’s Lower House Speaker Attends PA-UfM Bureau, Extended Bureau Meeting in Madrid

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rachid Talbi El Alami, on Wednesday took part in the meeting of the Bureau and Enlarged Bureau of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean (PA-UfM) in Madrid. The meeting, chaired by Speaker of the Spanish Congress of Deputies and Speaker of the PA-UfM, Francina Armengol, and attended by Pedro Manuel Rollán Ojeda, Speaker of the Senate, Marc Angel, Vice-President of the European Parliament, and Mohamed Abou El-Enein, Deputy Speaker of the Egyptian House of Representatives, was an opportunity for participants to coordinate their positions with regard to current issues and discuss the Parliamentary Assembly’s roadmap. In a statement to MAP, Talbi El Alami stressed that Morocco’s participation in this meeting is part of the implementation of the Final Declaration of the 17th Session of the PA-UfM, dubbed “the spirit of Rabat”, which constitutes a plea for a “united front” in the face of the major common challenges facing the Euro-Mediterranean region. Emphasizing the importance of the PA-UfM as a forum for dialogue and consultation between the two shores of the Mediterranean to promote peace, stability and development in the region, the Lower House Speaker said the meeting had served to draw up a roadmap for the parliamentary assembly’s future activities. For Talbi El Alami, this meeting is meant to exchange experiences and expertise and to maintain ongoing communication, adding that the main objective is to defend Morocco’s supreme interests in international forums. He added that the meeting also provided an opportunity to examine organizational issues, including the establishment of the PA-UfM Secretariat General and the participation of other countries, such as Senegal and Mauritania, in future meetings of this regional parliamentary institution. Morocco’s House of Representatives is one of the founders of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean, and has already held the presidency.