Morocco Parliament Opens New Session, Drives to Create Jobs, Implement Constitution

 
Rabat — Moroccan parliamentarians will tackle employment and legislative performance during their spring session, which opened on Friday (April 12th). House of Representatives Speaker Karim Ghellab said that the Parliament and the government should co-ordinate efforts to implement the provisions of the new constitution.

"This is a very important session on the legislative front," he said. "We must make great efforts to implement the expected texts." According to several parliamentarians, the government must pay more attention to legislative proposals from the parliamentary groups.

The new constitution has strengthened the legislative role of Parliament, Rally of Independents leader Rachid Talbi Alami said. "Yet so far, priority is not being given to legislative initiatives of parliamentarians," he added.
MPs and the government must take up the challenge of implementing organic laws including the long-awaited text on the organisation of the government, regionalisation, as well as the Amazigh project, political scientist Jamal Farhane said.

"We are also waiting for the projects relating to the organisation of the next elections whose date has not yet been set. The session will, in fact, probably be punctuated by debates on the anticipated elections that are being delayed for political reasons," he said.

He also noted that Parliament will address the major structural reforms including the compensation and pension funds. "These are two major issues that will keep the legislative institution busy because they affect the daily lives of citizens," Farhane added.

In addition, there is the issue of unemployed graduates who continue to demonstrate their anger before Parliament. They say that parliamentarians are too passive on the issue and that they do not support their access to the labour market.

"We expect parliamentarians to defend the causes of the population and the issue of graduate employment is one," Hicham Mridi said. "Members are required to give priority to the issue of unemployment which continues to become more complicate over time."

Parliamentarians however, stressed that members were aware of the importance of this issue, which the government must address and expressed their solidarity with the unemployed. "We must look at the real problem, the adaptation of training to the needs of the labour market," Employment Minister Abdelouahed Souhail said.

He noted that the government alone could not provide work for each young graduate. He pointed out the need to explore opportunities for vocational training and the development of relations between universities and businesses. "An observatory on employment will be launched before the end of this year," he added.

"The goal is to produce reliable and relevant information for a better understanding of potential employment," he said.