The Moroccan Association of the Presidents of the Councils of Prefectures and Provinces was part of a high-level Moroccan delegation including local and regional elected officials and representatives of the Directorate General of Local Collectivities, having participated in the meeting organized by the Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, which was held on Tuesday, April 2, 2019 and which was devoted to granting Morocco the status of “partner” for local democracy.
Pursuant to this decision, Morocco obtained twelve seats in the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, including six alternates. Two seats are held by the Moroccan Association of Presidents of the Councils of Prefectures and Provinces, reflecting the Association’s important position as a body representing one of the most important levels of Moroccan decentralization and an important player in Morocco’s advanced regionalization model.
Within the framework of this membership, Morocco is committed to pursuing the development of the process of decentralization and regionalization and to promoting the positioning of Territorial Collectivities and their role in the consolidation of local democracy and territorial governance, which corresponds to one of the most important areas of focus of the Moroccan Association of the Presidents of the Councils of Prefectures and Provinces.
It should be noted that the Council of Europe Regional and Local Authorities is a European political body representing the local and regional authorities of 47 member states of the Council of Europe, which includes 200,000 Communes.
The status of Partner for Local Democracy was created by the Congress in 2014, in order to reflect the particular situation of the countries which are adjacent to the Council of Europe and to provide a privileged framework for dialogue and regular institutional exchanges with their European counterparts.
