A partner of former MEP Antonio Panteri and the Fight Impunity organization who are the protagonists of the Qatargate scandal affecting the European Parliament, Marie Arena is the target of investigators.
“Three hundred and eighty-nine. Former MEP Antonio Panzeri and his successor at the helm of the human rights subcommittee, Marie Arena, are said to have had at least 389 phone calls between mid-December 2021 and mid-September 2022, according to court documents obtained by Le Soir newspapers and La Repubblica. They are a little less than the contacts of the Italian with the first “confidant” of Francesco Giorgi, (437 contacts in the same period), former assistant of Panzeri and alleged accomplice in the case of interference and corruption in the European Parliament” notes Le Soir.
“Antonio Panceri was a colleague in the previous term, he is also a friend,” Arena answered soberly on the evening of December 11, when asked about her relationship with the president and founder of the non-profit organization Fight Impunity. He clarified, however, that he had “no special relationship” with this organization which has been housed since 2019 on rue Ducale in Brussels and which allegedly served as a “reception” for illegal funds from Qatar.
Kaili’s Phone Call
The Belgian MEP now prefers to speak of “professional friendship”. However, it was this long-time friend of Pancheri’s who was approached by former European Parliament vice-president Eva Kaili on December 9, worried that she could not contact either her partner or Pancheri who was being questioned by the authorities.
“First I tried to call Pancheri – who only speaks Italian – but I couldn’t find him,” Eva Kaili told investigators shortly after her arrest. “I then tried to contact Mark Tarabella and then Marie Arena. He replied that he does not know why Pancheri does not answer. Pancheri doesn’t speak English, I preferred to communicate with him through his friends.”
“Yes, Eva Kaili called me,” confirms Marie Arena. “I was at a conference at UCL and I couldn’t understand what he was saying. I just told her to stay calm and wait for things to clear up. (…) I guess she was in a panic and approached the Belgian MPs in her group. »
The Support of “Friends”
Former president of the French Community, MEP since 2004, Arena succeeded Pancheri in July 2019 as head of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI). Antonio was already a mentor to her, one guesses. “A friend,” she said. Possibly complicit? The authorities are looking for it.
One of the declassified pages of the State Security report that launched the judicial investigation describes the intervention actions that would have been made possible by the joint efforts of sponsors (mainly the Moroccan intelligence services) of the attackers (Mrs Pancheri and Giorgi are listed) with “ the conscious cooperation of a group of parliamentarians characterized as “friends”, whose members were Eva Kaili and Marie Arena.
Later in the report, the agents state, “Arena benefits from Panzeri’s advice and influence, while the latter uses Arena’s position as chairman of the human rights subcommittee within Parliament to exert his influence” In the face of these suspicions , the person concerned states: “The fact that a note from the State Security says something like this surprises me a lot. And if so, that misunderstands me. I have never acted on anyone’s orders. »
“Arena and Pancheri are also working closely together on behalf of Qatar,” say the agents and analysts of the Security. “These are not simple contacts that could be justified by the operations of the Arena, but many situations where Qatar was dictating what it would say as the chair of the DROI…”
In this committee as revealed by Le Soir, Pancheri seemed to be pulling the strings behind the scenes. At the end of this meeting, the Italian also called the Belgian MEP, congratulating her on her intervention. According to this conversation, which investigators have in their possession, the two considered what to do next: a resolution, a possible plenary debate…
Marie Arena herself offered her confidante an argument in favor of Qatar, pointing out the responsibility of foreign companies in not respecting the rights of workers in contrast to the most critical MPs. “My question about the responsibility of European companies in Qatar was not intended to absolve Qatar of its responsibilities, but it covered a field not raised by colleagues,” he replies.
“Working on a legislative project, it seemed important to me to understand how we could ensure that our companies respect human rights in a country like Qatar,” he continues. Hailing a “significant and rather unprecedented exercise” in confrontation by a Qatari minister with critical voices.
In the wrong place, at the wrong time and with the wrong people? Whether she was duped or not, Ms. Arena was undeniably close to several of the protagonists targeted by this civil-judicial case. Starting with Pier Antonio Panzeri, who allegedly helped his “clients” from Qatar and Morocco to mislead the functioning of the European assembly.
Free Entry to The Parliament
Originally from Milan, MEP since 2004, Antonio Panzeri founded in September 2019, two months after leaving Parliament, the non-profit association Fight Impunity in the heart of Brussels, a stone’s throw from the rue de la Loi and the park of Brussels. The purpose of the company is to “promote the fight against impunity and non-respect of international law”. A greatness of soul that Giorgi also identified before the investigators, describing a pseudo-NGO created to rationalize Qatar’s actions: “We had to find a clear system that would not trigger an alarm.”
The non-profit organization quickly imposed itself on the agenda of the European institutions. In particular by the parliamentary sub-committee on human rights. On 10 May, members of this DROI sub-committee were presented with the 2021 report on the “state of impunity in the world”, a publication coordinated by Fight Impunity and attended by several parliamentarians, including Belgium’s Marie Arena and Marc Tarabella. In the search of the latter’s home on December 10, his colleague was not the target of any subpoena or immunity request.
Five weeks later, on June 14, it was again in Parliament that, side by side, Pancheri, Arena and one of the directors of the parliamentary research services (EPRS) announced the first “International Conference on the Future of Human Rights”: two events will be organized in 2022, one on June 16 and 17, the other on December 2 and 3. In fact, in mid-June, a committee met on the 5th floor of Parliament: in addition to Marie Arena and Pancheri, the speakers included Nicolo Figa Talamanca and Luca Vizentini.
Six months later, the collaboration between EPRS and Fight Impunity resulted in a two-day seminar in Paris and Bazoches to discuss press freedom and the fight against impunity for crimes against journalists. Arena, Pancheri and Giorgi were present.
“There was never a question of pressure, either political or financial, from Pancheri on me and often our positions differed (for example, my hostile position on the ‘fisheries and agriculture’ trade agreement with Morocco),” Arena emphasizes.
“The cooperation with Fight Impunity began because it was ready to cooperate and was established in this field,” explains the press service of the Parliament. “The events organized brought together academics, parliamentarians from various groups, experts from various civil society organizations, witnesses to war crimes and journalists. The programs and publications of the events were made available online. No publications have been outsourced by Parliament. The collaboration did not involve any financial compensation or purchase of services. »
The Role of Mauritania
The fight against impunity by the NGO is its social object and has a charitable as well as an eclectic goal: on June 20, a Facebook live was organized to discuss the role that Europe can play in the Sahel region. In the foreground four people: the moderator, a journalist, Marie Areva and S.R., an employee of Fight Impunity who was recently investigated and whom Le Soir tried in vain to contact. This online mini-discussion is a prelude to a symposium to be organized two days later in Mauritania at the initiative of Arena.
Qatar and Morocco appear not to be the only countries that have benefited from Pancheri’s paid advice, there is also Mauritania. Because this country in northwest Africa, “also has an image problem”: “They hired Pancheri to get advice on how to do it. For a fee, Giorgi asserts that the Mauritanian ambassador agreed to rent the apartment – 1,500 euros, excluding utilities, per month – that the parliamentary assistant has in Brussels while “Pantseri secured 25,000 euros in cash”.
Arena justifies in its answers the strategic and diplomatic interest of the trip to Mauritania. He adds: “Fight Impunity, which wanted to work in Africa, later invited experts. For my part, I drafted the final report which was distributed to the representatives of the G5 countries.”
So, was the Belgian MEP duped by Pancheri and others? “Given what we’re learning in this case, that a person like Pansteri has an address book of his donors, there’s no question,” Arena says. Which concludes: “But that he took something from me as the chairman of the subcommittee or as an ordinary member of parliament, it is completely impossible.”
This article is originally published on newsbomb.gr