Morocco in the news

Mr. President, Members of the Bureau,

Your excellencies Ambassadors of African countries,

1. It is a great pleasure to be here once again for the first time after the reunification of our honorable institution and its return to its full functioning. Your strong words about a reunited family resonate in my ears.
2. I am proud to see once again our institution return to be one of the beating hearts of an exemplary Pan-African renewal that reflects the vision of the founding fathers for a Continent that moves forward in serenity, dialogue, and sharing.
3. Now is the time when we need to work together to ensure that the PAP reclaims its place in the continental governance matrix by making an impactful contribution to the lives and livelihoods of the people of Africa. This is more critical than ever, especially in the current uncertain international context, that the African continent still faces numerous challenges including new conflicts and violence, poverty, rising unemployment, lack of control over our resources…
4. The Continent has no vocation to be passive in a world where the multilateral system has shown its limits and globalization its imperfections. In all lucidity and responsibility, we must do our homework, in-depth and by our own means to review realities that are now outdated. Now more than ever, Africa must take ownership of its destiny through a renewed commitment that places human development at the heart of its priorities.
5. The PAP undoubtedly has a central contribution to make in building a better Africa and achieving the continent’s aspiration for progress and collective prosperity. We should support the policies and the programs of the PAP in this context, aiming at fulfilling its mandate. It should be an exercise that would revisit the architecture of a technocratic institutional scaffolding that has remained, in all likelihood, inadequate.
6. A new impetus is needed for Africa. A momentum of institutional renewal but also of operational renewal. The PAP has the means to set itself up as the engine of this renewal. And it is only by proving itself that the institution will succeed in overcoming certain reluctance and reservations that African countries and the Commission may have.
7. Our common goal should be to better equip the PAP to enable it to carry out its mission. The PAP has an advisory role and it will only be able to go beyond the legislative stage, as provided for by the Malabo protocol, by demonstrating the political voluntarism that befits and the operating methods that are essential. Transforming the PAP into a place of power would allow Africa to boost its continental policy.
8. We highly commend in this regard, the ambitious program of the PAP of institutional renewal, based on the founding values of the African Union of fairness, inclusiveness, and unification, in the framework of the entrenchment of the principle of rotational leadership and the need to mobilize support for the ratification of the Malabo Protocol.
9. There are some advances, but much remains to be done. Expectations are still moderate, but that does not prevent us from now starting this institutional renewal. A renewal that would allow the PAP to provide concrete responses to the ambitions of African youth, to the requirements of democratic representativeness, and to the prospects of African positions on the international scene.
10. This should not be an end by itself, it should help us to redirect the debates, refocus the priorities but above all to pursue more efficiently the mandate of our Parliament in raising collective awareness of our challenges and be a strong voice to promote solutions that respond to the requirements of a real and substantial unity.
11. Today, the only valid choice for Africa is modernization, democratization, and openness. The strengthening of the instruments of the African Union is therefore a necessary effort. This effort should be made in line with clearly defined priorities and needs: reviving economies, combating inequalities and social disparities, and promoting inclusive growth while building a future of prosperity, peace, and security for the continent, in adhering to the relevant decisions of the AU in this regard and continuing to support the role of the relevant organs in charge of this topic.
12. It is this same vision that is carried by King Mohammed VI for an Africa that is advancing with determined steps on the path to its emergence. It is this same heartfelt ambition that Morocco shares with its fellow African partners and friends. And it is this same approach to the responsibility that could make the PAP the institution it is intended to be, namely the lungs of a democratic Africa oxygenated by the African peoples.
13. We have the instrument and the vision, what we need now are readjusted, appropriate and ambitious operating methods to make the PAP this door that opens towards a renewal of African Unity by advocating loudly and proudly for inclusive and sustainable development, peace, stability, democracy, respect for human rights and good governance on the African Continent.