“We appreciate the efforts made by the Kingdom of Morocco to promote democratic development in the country and beyond its borders,” Komenko said in a speech on the occasion of the two-day meeting in Marrakech of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development under the PACE.
Recalling that the Standing Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has made, in 2019, “a positive assessment” of the results of the implementation of the partnership with the Moroccan Parliament, which had acceded in 2011 to the status of PACE partner for democracy, she said that PACE “looks forward to further cooperation and stands ready to make its contribution to democratic development in Morocco.”
“As members of the Committee on Social, Health and Sustainable Development, we are particularly interested in the progress made towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6, which aims to ensure access to water and sanitation for all and to ensure sustainable management for water resources,” said Komenko.
She said that Morocco’s commitment to sustainable development and renewable energy is “commendable”, making known that this meeting provides an opportunity to learn more about Moroccan initiatives in these areas.
For her part, Salma Benaziz, chairwoman of the Moroccan delegation to PACE, said that the holding of this meeting for the first time on African soil offers the Continent the opportunity to “put into perspective its vision on the social, health and environmental challenges that Europe, its Mediterranean neighborhood and the world currently face.”
The Moroccan MP also stressed that the interaction between PACE members and their partners “is all the more relevant in the current context where major regional, intercontinental and international challenges are invited on the parliamentary scene with an unprecedented acuteness. Political, security, health, food, energy and environmental challenges remind us of our common destiny and our duty of solidarity.”