Interparliamentary council chairman winds up visit to Morocco
Morocco, Politics, 5/6/1999

Acting chairman of the interparliamentary council, Miguel Angel Martinez (Spain) on Wednesday wound up a five-day visit to Morocco during which he was received by King Hassan II and conferred with several cabinet members.

Martinez, who visited the kingdom at the invitation of the speaker of the House of Representatives (lower house of the Moroccan parliament), voiced satisfaction at the outcome of his visit, which enabled him to have "a more accurate vision on what is going on in the Kingdom."

He told reporters upon departure that the visit provided him with the opportunity to have first-hand information on the progress scored by Morocco in matters of the consolidation of the democratic and multi-party system.

He renewed backing to Morocco's alternation experience that is essential, he said, to the Moroccan people and to the whole Mediterranean basin.

During his talks with Moroccan officials, the acting chairman of the interparliamentary council underlined the importance of this alternation experience that "makes of the Kingdom a pioneer country in Africa," and that consolidates "Morocco's credibility at European and international levels."

Morocco embarked on the alternation experience in early 1998, when King Hassan II entrusted the first secretary of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, with forming an alternation government that was actually appointed on March 14, 1998, bringing to power center-left parties after decades of right-wing rule.

The coalition cabinet is made up of 41 ministers from 7 political leftist and centrist parties.

Angel Martinez's talks with Moroccan officials and parliamentarians focused on political, economic and financial cooperation between Morocco and the European Union, Euro-Mediterranean partnership, and the situation in the Middle East and Kosovo.

Angel Martinez was elected chairman of the interparliamentary council for a three-year term in September 1997 during the council's 16th session held in Cairo.

The interparliamentary council, set up in 1889, is one of the initiators of what is commonly known as multilateral cooperation. It contributed to the setting up of the Community of Nations, of the UNO and of the Hague-based permanent arbitration court -a framework of parliamentary consultation and diplomacy.

The court, gathering legislators from 136 parliaments, addresses issues of concern to the international community and proposes means of improving the working methods of parliamentary institutions.

Previous Stories:
  Interparliamentary head speaks on importance of Parliaments, UN reform   (5/5/1999)

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