On 15 March 2021, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and the Moroccan Association of Presidents of Prefectural and Provincial Councils (AMPCPP) co-organised a national meeting on the “reform of the legislative framework related to competences of prefectures and provinces and their implementation”.
Held as part of the Congress project under the Council of Europe Neighbourhood Partnership 2018-2021 with Morocco, this hybrid event brought together Presidents of Prefectural and Provincial Councils, representatives of the Moroccan government, and Congress Vice-President Xavier Cadoret (France, SOC/G/PD).
Wali Director-general Khalid Safir highlighted a series of important elements of the Advanced Regionalisation reform underway: “the granting to the Presidents of the Councils of Prefectures and Provinces of the status of executive bodies and authorising officers for the expenditure of the revenues of the community, the setting up of bodies and mechanisms of participatory democracy, the reinforcement of women representation within elected assemblies, the devolution of the regulatory power to the Councils, the development of the administrative services of the community and the improvement of the status of the elected representative, mark an important stage in this territorial decentralisation”.
Vice-President Cadoret welcomed the significant step in co-operation between the Congress and the Moroccan government and the resilience of decentralised authorities to address issues related to the crisis situations such as the coronavirus pandemic, highlighting the need to strengthen local and regional governments. The Congress Vice-President further outlined the common difficulties in any process of decentralisation, among them the lack of financial resources, the absence of dialogue with central authorities, and insufficient powers of communities. He added that “the Congress is convinced that co-operation and experience sharing between local and regional authorities on both sides of the Mediterranean will help to face difficulties on the way to the decentralisation process with the aim to co-build democratic societies of the future”.
This meeting is part of the South-Med Partnership programme adopted by the Congress in 2017, the purpose of which is to support territorial reforms and strengthen decentralised governance in beneficiary neighbouring countries. This programme contributes to implementing the local and regional dimension of the Council of Europe policy towards neighbouring regions, in particular the Neighbourhood Partnerships with Morocco and with Tunisia (2018-2021). The activities organised in this framework benefit from financial support by Liechtenstein, Norway and Spain.
