ALGIERS – Tuesday, 05 September 2023 (APS) – The Speaker of the Council of the Nation (Upper House), Salah Goudjil, and the Speaker of the People’s National Assembly (Lower House), Brahim Boughali, co-chaired a meeting on Monday between the offices of the two chambers of parliament, in the presence of the Minister of Relations with Parliament, Basma Azouar, to set the agenda for the 2023-2024 ordinary parliamentary session, according to a press release from the upper house of parliament.
The meeting, which took place at the headquarters of the Council of the Nation, “is part of the implementation of the provisions of Article 15 (paragraph 1) of the organic law 16-12, amended and supplemented, defining the organization and functioning of the two parliament houses, as well as the functional relations between the two chambers of Parliament and the Government,” said the source.
Goudjil underscored “the importance of coordination and complementarity between the two chambers of Parliament, which must review their rules of procedure in line with the Constitution of November 1, 2020, and with the specificity, nature and legislative and oversight tasks of each chamber.”
In this respect, he emphasized the need to “prioritize and define priorities when considering draft legislation”, saying he shared the opinion of the Lower House President, who highlighted the priority given to draft legislation on the commune and the province, which would “truly enshrine the principle of decentralization.”
The speaker also reaffirmed the need to “reinvigorate the role of parliamentary diplomacy in defending the causes of the Nation,” recalling “the coordination meeting held recently with the services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad, aimed at further coordination between the two executive and legislative powers.
For his part, Boughali stated that the agenda for the current session will be “intense, added to the two rules of procedure of each Chamber, with the Government’s General Policy Statement and certain bills that may be raised by the government.”
In this regard, he stressed the need to “set” priorities when considering certain bills, wishing to see the two draft codes on commune and province adopted “as soon as possible”, in view of their “great impact on the progress of development projects locally,” he explained.
Boughali expressed his “readiness to revive coordination with the Council of the Nation on legislative matters”, as well as “parliamentary diplomacy and everything to do with provisional fact-finding missions, with a view to avoiding repeated visits to the same provinces.”