NOVA YORK – APS.dz.- Lobbying international organisations, especially the European Union (EU), is an “old tradition” of the Moroccan regime, which has “a well-organised group of friends” who gravitate around the European Parliament (EP) on its behalf in exchange for money and other benefits, according to former UN envoy for Western Sahara, Francesco Bastagli.
As part of a programme devoted to the corruption scandal which has shaken the European Parliament since it broke on 9 December, the American television news programme Democracy Now invited the former Special Representative for Western Sahara (2005-2007) to speak on a number of points relating to the Saharawi question, which has long been at the centre of “a large Moroccan lobby”.
According to Mr. Francesco Bastagli, there exists in Europe “a sort of group of friends which gravitates around the European Parliament (for the benefit mainly of Morocco), and it is the parliamentarians themselves who have long channelled the illicit interests of their sponsors, to support their agendas within the European institution”.
This group of friends also “facilitates the identification of MEPs who could be – due to the nature of their roles and responsibilities in the Parliament – of most use to their clients and creates opportunities for these MEPs to be approached through social gatherings, visiting missions and the like.”
It is therefore, in his view, “a well-articulated system”, which also includes “monitoring the behaviour of MPs who have been bribed, to ensure that they vote or behave or lobby in accordance with what is expected of them”.
In fact, as far as its agenda is concerned, Morocco has “a long tradition of a very offensive presence, both in its bilateral relations with key countries and in international forums such as the UN and the EU”, the Italian diplomat pointed out.
In the economic and commercial fields, the lobbying effort of Morocco’s friends is “extremely important”, continues the former personal envoy of Kofi Annan, recalling that Rabat has repeatedly tried to include the occupied territory of Western Sahara – (a territory separate and distinct from Morocco, the European court had concluded) – in its agriculture and fisheries agreements with the EU.
Western Sahara at the centre of “Maroccogate
As for the Saharawi question, the Moroccan lobby is not only active in the EU, but also in the UN, since, at UN level, the Western Sahara conflict is considered as a question of unfinished decolonisation, the rapporteur points out.
According to him, thanks to these lobbying efforts and the support of influential members of the Security Council, including Spain, Morocco has always succeeded in preventing the UN from carrying out its obligation to organise a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara.
Ana Gomes, Member of the European Parliament (2004-2019) was also invited to speak on this news programme. The retired Portuguese diplomat focused on a human rights NGO called “Fight against Impunity”, set up by former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, who was implicated in the corruption scandal that rocked the European Parliament.
It is “a network that has been operating in the European Parliament for a long time” and, according to her, was set up by Morocco. She reveals that “people close to Panzeri, the founder of this NGO designed to cover up this network of corruption, have been arrested because they knew about it and had received money from Morocco for a long time”.
This came as no surprise to the former MEP, who said that during her three terms in the European Parliament, with Panzeri in the same political group, “we had several disputes, especially about Western Sahara”.
“All this time, he tried to protect Morocco’s interests, preventing us from focusing on human rights in the Kingdom and, of course, the human rights of the people of Western Sahara, especially the right to self-determination,” says former diplomat Francesco Bastagli.
As soon as she arrived in the European Parliament in 2004, Ms Gomes noted the existence, within the institution, of “a network which tries to ignore discourses using the arguments of international legality and human rights, and even the security aspect of the Western Sahara conflict”.
She warns of “the extreme security risks which Europe in particular faces, but also Africa and the world, if the question of Western Sahara is not helped to be resolved”.