Parliament: A rich legislative menu in perspective – La Vie Éco

In addition to education and health, two other major reforms have just been initiated. More than twenty draft bills relating to justice and the reform of the Administration have been drawn up and are currently in the hands of the SGG.

Everyone will have noticed it, the deputies had to put the turbo to complete the draft Finance Law of 2023 in such a short time. Less than three weeks, the examination began on October 26, the vote in plenary on November 11. In another time, the adoption of the PLF which generally intervened just before January 1st was synonymous with the end of the session and thus the beginning of the parliamentary holidays. This is no longer the case. Keeping in mind the hypothesis of a second reading of the PLF, “at this stage nothing, in fact, indicates that the text will not return to the deputies for a second reading. A situation which is essential each time that the councilors bring amendments to it ”, confirms this source of the first Chamber. In the meantime, even if the advisers would put as much enthusiasm into it as the deputies in the examination and the vote of the text, the latter will not remain idly by. Thirty bills, 34 in total, of which more than half (21 texts) namely international conventions, are currently pending. The examination of certain texts, confirms this parliamentarian, “is currently at a very advanced stage”. But this is just a taste of what awaits MPs. As soon as the draft framework law on the reform of the health system is adopted, five laws relating to this reform will be immediately injected into the legislative circuit. The announcement was also made a few weeks ago by the Head of Government, who insisted that this is a first of its kind. Complete the establishment of the legal framework for this reform as soon as possible. Once this is done, members will certainly tackle another reform. In fact, it is a reform that was launched nearly two decades ago and is now halfway there. It is about justice on which depends, among other things, the success of the implementation of the new investment framework, manifested by the adoption of the Charter of the same name. The judicial power being well established, the laws relating to the statute of the magistrates and to the judicial organization already in force, there remains a whole aspect which has not yet been started. In fact, yes, since the Minister of Justice, Abdellatif Ouahbi, has just affirmed that his department “has drawn up at least 14 texts which are currently in the hands of the SGG”.

A gentle revolution
However, explains the Minister, if these texts have still not been presented to Parliament, it is because the procedure for preparing them is relatively slow. “We drew up these texts at the level of the ministry, we then submitted them to the SGG. At this level, draft bills are discussed article by article. At the next stage, these texts, once reformatted, are submitted to the members of the government for their opinions and observations. It is only after the adoption of the projects by the Government Council that they are tabled in Parliament”.
In short, notes the Minister, taking into account the number of texts being drafted, and especially their nature, we can say that “it is a legislative revolution gently” that justice is experiencing. This is a good thing since, with the implementation of the new investment charter, efficient, transparent and professional justice is a prerequisite for attracting foreign investment and therefore for economic take-off. Indeed, with the reform of the Administration, also in progress, this would make it possible to put in place a legal and procedural framework conducive to the revival of the economy.
That said, in the reform of justice, there is not only this aspect directly linked to the economy and business. It is a global overhaul that goes from the reform of the Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Code of Civil Procedure to the revision of the Family Code, although this last project has only just begun. There is also everything else. It is also a question of reviewing the training of magistrates and auxiliaries of justice. This is a nodal point of the reform. Indeed, in addition to the bill relating to the reform of the Higher Institute of the Judiciary, there is talk of creating a new National Institute of Justice Professions. Both bills have been forwarded to the SGG. The reform also provides, and the related texts are currently before the SGG, the revision of the statutes of almost all the legal professions: lawyers, legal experts, translators, judicial officers and adouls in particular. A bill relating to the renovation and centralization of the criminal record is also in progress, as is a text on the digitization of judicial procedures. Naturally, the long-awaited bill on alternative sentences which goes hand in hand with the new organization and management of penal centers has also been submitted to the SGG. Equally important, and even urgent, the reform of the Administration is in turn already underway. There is of course the famous bill 41.19 relating to digital administration, still in the consultation phase with the SGG, there is also a whole series of texts relating to administrative devolution and the reform of the civil service and the status of civil servants. At the same time, the department responsible for the digital transition has just finalized the drafting of several bills capable of strengthening the morality of the Administration. We can cite, among others, a draft law on illegal enrichment, another on the conflict of interest and a third to provide legal protection to officials who denounce cases of corruption in the Administration. This is to show the work that awaits parliamentarians. According to parliamentary sources, some texts will probably start to fall before the end of the current session which comes to an end with the first week of February. The rest is expected during the spring session.

The legislative process in numbers

183: this is the number of laws and regulations that were examined during the 38 Government Council meetings held during the first year of the government’s mandate. These are 21 draft international agreements, 3 organic bills, two framework bills, 14 bills, 17 bills ratifying international conventions, 125 implementing decrees and a single decree- law.
12: the number of bills accepted by the government out of 144 texts it examined.
10: this is the number of monthly sessions devoted by the government to the examination of parliamentary bills.
22: the number of decrees adopted by the government as part of the generalization of compulsory health insurance.
112: the number of law enforcement decrees that have been adopted and published in the Official Bulletin.
25: the number of bills inherited from the previous legislature currently before the First Chamber and 9 before the Second Chamber.
177: this is the number of meetings devoted to the examination of legal texts held by the permanent committees of the two Chambers of Parliament.
30: this is the number of plenary sessions held by the Chambers of Parliament devoted to voting on laws.
28: the number of bills passed in Parliament, 22 of which passed unanimously.