An analysis of the data published on the official portal of the House of Representatives reveals the monitoring of 383 diplomatic activities in the first chamber of the Moroccan Parliament, from the beginning of the parliamentary term until the end of 2023.

Analysis of data related to the Council’s diplomatic activities allows us to reveal the main actors and directions of parliamentary diplomacy for the First Chamber, in addition to monitoring the nature of this diplomatic activity and the gains it has achieved for the benefit of official diplomacy.

If parliamentary diplomacy is a mechanism that complements the work of its official counterpart, the actual practice of this mechanism reveals the degree of involvement of the tools used to activate it (the presidency of the Council, friendship groups, and national divisions, in addition to parliamentary committees).

“Day 24” puts parliamentary diplomacy on the “morgue” of data analysis. We will reveal its outcome since the beginning of the current legislative term and over a period of 26 months.. What has been achieved? What are the faults?

Before that, we will first put the work of the national friendship and people’s groups under the microscope. How are they formed? What are their specialties?

sumat the friendship

The bylaws of the House of Representatives stipulate that the Council forms at the beginning of the legislative period “parliamentary brotherhood and friendship groups,” and is assigned the task of “strengthening and developing parliamentary relations between the parliaments of countries with which the country has bilateral relations,” and “encouraging the exchange of visits, information, and experiences among them.” As well as “activating parliamentary diplomacy to serve the interest of the Kingdom.”

Since the beginning of the current legislative term, as stipulated in its bylaws, the House of Representatives has formed 148 friendship groups with parliaments of countries around the world, from various continents, until the end of the year 2023, according to the House’s official portal.

If the Council’s bylaws do not specify the number of members of each group, the analysis of the data that “Al-Youm 24” worked on, based on data published by the Council’s portal, indicates that friendship groups attract between 4 and 10 male and female parliamentarians.

Data indicate that the Moroccan-Senegalese friendship group is the most attractive to Moroccan parliamentarians, with 10 members, and four friendship groups (all with African countries) are considered the least attractive to parliamentarians, with only 4 members.

The numbers also indicate that about two-thirds of the Council’s members (242 parliamentarians, male and female), are members of one or two friendship groups at most. What is shocking is that we find in Parliament “unemployed representatives” in relation to holding membership in one of the friendship groups, as 42 parliamentarians, male and female, are from Members of the House of Representatives are not interested in friendship groups, and are not interested in working from within them with the aim of activating parliamentary diplomacy in a way that serves the interest of the Kingdom.

National people

The Council’s internal regulations stipulate that at the beginning of the parliamentary period, on the basis of proportional representation of parliamentary teams and groups, permanent national divisions are formed, which represent the Council in the international and regional parliamentary organizations of which it is a member.

The bylaws confirm that the opposition contributes to the permanent divisions and to all diplomatic activities of the Council in no less than a proportion of its representation.

Since the beginning of the current legislative term, 18 national divisions have been formed, whose membership includes a total of 75 parliamentarians, male and female, who represent the Council to international and regional parliamentary organizations.

The first subject

An analysis of the available data on the 383 diplomatic activities of the House of Representatives reveals the main actors in this field, led by the Presidency of the House of Representatives, represented by the President, his deputies, and the Secretary of the House.

With 53 percent of the total diplomatic activities of the Council, since the beginning of the legislative term, the President of the Council tops the list of main actors in parliamentary diplomacy.

Taking into account the diplomatic activities supervised by the Vice-Presidents and the Secretary of the Council, the percentage related to the Council Presidency institution reaches 64 percent of the total diplomatic activities, while the remaining percentage (36 percent) is distributed among various other actors (people, friendship groups, and permanent committees).

It is noteworthy that one of the most important tools entrusted with “strengthening and developing parliamentary relations between the parliaments of countries with which the country has bilateral relations” has a “very modest” presence in the scene of parliamentary diplomacy, and it concerns friendship groups, which contribute only 5.5 percent of the total activities of parliamentary diplomacy. The House of Representatives since the beginning of the legislative term.

On the other hand, the percentage increases slightly for the national divisions, and the total number of diplomatic activities in which the main actors were the members of the division reaches 76 activities, representing about 20 percent of the total diplomatic activities.

Commenting on these data, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rashid Talbi Alami, said in a statement to “Al-Youm 24” that “parliamentary diplomacy is consistent and consistent with the highest interests of the country, and the operating mechanisms have been fully employed in varying proportions, some of which have been employed very well, and some of which have been implemented.” It is used very little for several objective reasons.”

The Council President added, “Friendship groups are employed as needed,” noting that “there are constraints that prevent the full employment of this mechanism approved by parliamentary diplomacy.”

On the other hand, Talbi Al-Alami explained, “The people work regularly, and we do not leave any seat empty, at a time when opponents of territorial unity are keen to attend international and regional parliamentary organizations in large numbers.”

Most polarizing

Parliamentary diplomacy preserved the traditional and historical spaces of operation, while the increasing trend toward new spaces became clear, through openness to the parliaments of Latin America, the Caribbean, the Andes, and the Central American Parliament.

The European and Mediterranean space has been the most polarizing for Moroccan diplomacy, as it is more active in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean, the Joint Parliamentary Committee between the Moroccan Parliament, the European Parliament, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

The figures reveal that 30 percent of the diplomatic activities of the House of Representatives took place in the European space, with the Arab-Islamic space coming in second place at 17 percent, then the Americas space at 14 percent, and with the same percentage, the African space also ranks third.

Statistical data also indicate that 63 percent of the House of Representatives’ diplomatic activities are receptions and discussions with foreign delegations, and 11 percent of the House’s diplomatic activities are receptions for foreign ambassadors at the House headquarters, according to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rachid Talbi Alami.

Territorial unit

If it is natural that the issue of the Kingdom’s territorial integrity is the central issue that draws the greatest attention to the diplomacy of the House of Representatives, the Council sought to adopt a methodology of preemption, persuasion, and confidence-building, according to the Speaker of the House.

Talbi Al-Alami stressed in his statement to the website that “the concerns of parliamentary diplomacy are mainly related to defending the interests of the country and the national issue, then come the rest of the other issues, from economy and politics. Questions are also raised about democratic development in Morocco, and the field of human rights and freedoms.”

The data indicate that the total number of diplomatic activities that resulted in a position in favor of the territorial integrity of the Kingdom amounts to 44 activities, representing 11 percent of the total activities recorded from the beginning of the term until the end of 2023.

Commenting on the level of presence of the national issue at the level of parliamentary diplomacy and the successes it has achieved, Talbi Alami said, “We have an ambition to raise the percentage and we are working in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

Al-Alami added, “The central directors of the continents at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held meetings with the national friendship and people’s groups, and identified for us the stakes and constraints on each continent, because the elements of the discourse differ from one country to another, according to the priorities and political affiliation of those who bear responsibility during each stage, because the discourse must He adapts according to the addressee.”

Analysis of the graphical data shows that 38 percent of the Council’s diplomatic activities resulted in positions or decisions seeking to “strengthen or institutionalize bilateral relations” between Morocco and other parties, whether they are countries or regional or international organizations.

In second place are the diplomatic activities through which the Moroccan party worked to “introduce Moroccan reforms and experiences in various fields,” accounting for 26 percent of the total diplomatic activities recorded from the beginning of the legislative term until the end of 2023.

The façade of multilateral parliamentary relations was characterized by making new issues the subject of discussion in international forums, including those related to climate and climate justice and pleading the issues of southern African countries. Essentially, this Moroccan pleading of a number of issues was witnessed by about 13 percent of the diplomatic activities of the House of Representatives.

Among the results of the Council’s diplomatic activities is the acquisition of 10 positions of responsibility in regional and international parliamentary organizations, following the participation of Moroccan delegations in their conferences or organizational meetings.

The majority and the opposition

Analysis of data related to national friendship and people’s groups shows a difference in the presence of the majority and the opposition in these two mechanisms supporting parliamentary diplomacy.

If the representatives of the Progress and Socialism Party are the most present in friendship groups, with a rate of membership of one parliamentarian in 7 friendship groups, what is striking is that the representatives of the government majority are the least present in the friendship groups (every parliamentarian, male or female, belongs to one or two friendship groups at most).

As for the national divisions, the data indicate that 72 percent of the people’s members belong to the majority groups (the National Rally of Independents, the Authenticity and Modernity, and the Independence).

Regarding whether the numbers related to the representation of parliamentary teams in the national divisions represent “a violation of the majority,” the Speaker of the House of Representatives said, “The matter is related to proportional representation and this is a constitutional principle.”

On the other hand, the Speaker of the House of Representatives attributed the absence of about 10 percent of the members of the House of Representatives in friendship groups to the choices of the parliamentary teams, and stressed that what is important for the House is the representation of all parliamentary teams in the national divisions to collectively defend the interests of the nation.

The President of the Council expressed his hope for the concerted efforts of everyone to raise the level of performance of parliamentary diplomacy, expressing his pride in what has been achieved so far, without denying the existence of constraints that must be remedied.