World conference of Socialist International mayors held in Fez

The second world conference of the mayors of the Socialist International (SI) opened Monday in Fez with several international figures attending, including SI chairman Pierre Mauroy.

The two-day meeting is debating topics related to "globalization and solidarity: the role of local authorities, cities in conflict," "the new partners: the state and the local authorities" and "the future cities: quality of life and information society, the socialist response."

Addressing the opening session of the conference, Moroccan Prime Minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi surveyed Morocco's "irreversible" commitment to consolidating democratic institutions. Such a commitment fulfills "a deep aspiration of our people to democratic renewal," he said, adding that restoring the people's trust in the institutions is among the top concerns of the government.

Youssoufi pointed out that the Fez meeting will help identify the best means to establish a partnership between the state and the local authorities through the consolidation of the autonomy of local councils and "to give a Socialist answer on the way to improve the population living standards."

For his part, Interior Minister Driss Basri underlined that throughout Morocco's secular history, "local autonomy has been, without rupture, among the permanent and abiding features of our government systems and our socio-political institutions."

He recalled that the communal reform of 1976 in particular, marked a new era of freedom, responsibility and participative democracy for local autonomy.

"Thanks to this fundamental reform, the communes had access to a sphere of very large competencies, including sensitive fields such as those of urbanism, well before other countries like France, which had to await the decentralization reforms of 1982 to cede such competencies to the local authorities," he said.

The conference is to wind up proceedings this Tuesday.