The European High Representative for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, was in Morocco on Thursday 5 January. The corruption scandal that has shaken the European Parliament since mid-December has cast its shadow over this long-planned visit. Borell’s trip to Rabat occurred in a very delicate situation for relations between Morocco and the European Union.
As the investigations of the Belgian justice in the “Moroccogate” affair advance, the kingdom appears more and more as the instigator of the vast network of corruption of deputies intended to influence the positions of the European Parliament.
The confessions of those arrested are clear as to the direct involvement of Morocco. The officer of the DGED (external intelligence), Mohamed Belahrech, is presented as the key man in the case and the investigators have established that the ambassador of the kingdom in Poland, Abderrahim Atmoun, directly gave “gifts”, or large sums of money in cash, to certain deputies and their entourage, such as the Italian Pier Antonio Panzeri.
More than 1.5 million euros was discovered in the fifteen homes and offices searched by the Belgian police.
As when the Pegasus spy scandal was revealed in July 2021, Morocco opted for the delegation strategy. His Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, reduced the enormous scandal to a simple operation of “people, structures, circles” who would, according to him, be “disturbed” by the development of the partnership and the European Union. In front of Josep Borrell, Bourita denounced “repeated media attacks” within the European Parliament itself.
Borell: “Zero Tolerance” in The Face of Corruption
The purpose of Borell’s visit was officially to consolidate this partnership, but the seriousness of the revelations meant that the matter could not be evaded. The head of European diplomacy even went far by showing a certain firmness.
Borrell has promised that there will be “zero tolerance” in this file. “We expect everyone to cooperate in this investigation,” he said, addressing Moroccans in particular.
Europe has long been lenient towards Morocco, on its internal human rights violations and in Western Sahara, but also for the criminal behavior of its services and its diplomacy vis-à-vis third countries. , especially European ones.
Two recent cases particularly illustrate this status of “spoiled child of Europe” which the kingdom seems to enjoy. In July 2021, the international press revealed the use by Moroccan services of a vast espionage operation via the Israeli spyware Pegasus, targeting foreign journalists and officials, including French President Emmanuel Macron. The consequences of this scandal were limited to a chill in Franco-Moroccan relations.
A month earlier, in the midst of a diplomatic crisis with Spain, Moroccan police let a wave of 10,000 migrants, including unaccompanied minors, into the Spanish enclave of Melilla.
Rather than giving rise to firm reactions, this migratory blackmail has on the contrary made Spain bend, which in March 2022 made a historic reversal in its position vis-à-vis the question of Western Sahara, deciding against all waiting to support the Moroccan autonomy plan.
Even in the ongoing corruption scandal, MEPs condemned Qatar through a resolution and refused to do the same with Morocco.
The statements made by Josep Borrell in Rabat, in which he explicitly promised that there will be no “impunity”, contrast with the chronic indulgence of Europe with its North African partner. It remains to be seen how far Brussels will go once the conclusions of the investigation are known, and also the price to be paid by Morocco to emerge unscathed from this affair.
This article is originally published on tsa-algerie.com