Mohamed OULD CHERIF
Director of the Centre for Studies and Documentation, Ahmed Baba MISKÉ Paris, 13 January 2023
The Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into allegations of money laundering, corruption and participation in a criminal organisation involving a Vice-President of the European Parliament, MEPs and employees of the European Parliament. The investigation revealed the involvement of the State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Morocco. The European Parliament has proposed a resolution to denounce and strongly reject these attempts at corruption, but this resolution does not mention Morocco. And although the Belgian Minister of Justice accused Morocco’s secret services by name, the amendment submitted by the Left to include Morocco did not obtain the majority required to be adopted.
This is serious. For we see in broad daylight the “obliged friends” of Morocco in the European Parliament united to preserve a servile but unreliable partner (Morocco is regularly criticised for its lack of respect for human rights and its low human development index), which is undermining the old continent’s principles of democracy, justice and equity. The President of the Parliament, Roberta METSOLA, is calling for the fight against corruption, which is proving difficult given the corruption by Morocco of some MPs through luxurious holidays, gifts and illegal money.
The specifics of this scandal
Yet other countries have used financial means to influence international institutions or third governments. But this has been restricted and limited. Corruption by Morocco (Maroc-Gate) is special because it involves a sprawling structure, many actors, huge sums of money and over a long period. And it involves a key area. It is the legislative domain of a continental organisation. It is the voting of international treaties that span several years, involve several countries and concern several hundred million European consumers. This is one of the characteristics of this veritable industry of corruption.
The flagship of this corruption is an NGO called “Fight Impunity” (0). This structure, which claims to fight against human rights violations, is in reality used by the Moroccan secret services to “buy” votes aimed, among other things, at promoting the plundering of the wealth of Western Sahara (70% occupied by Morocco), in violation of international law. Headed by former Italian socialist MP Pier Antonio PANZERI, its board of directors includes “high profile” politicians, such as former French head of government Bernard CAZENEUVE (1) and former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica MOGHERINI. And although the NGO is not listed in the EU transparency register, it has worked very frequently with the socialist Marie ARENA, chair of the EU Subcommittee on Human Rights.
One striking fact is that this NGO is the only one of the 12,500 NGOs to have a former Prime Minister on its board of directors who is also the president of a legal think tank (“Club des Juristes”). And who, ironically, advocated the introduction of a compliance obligation in EU law in the fight against corruption. This presence on the board gives the NGO a greater than average advantage in the EU’s political and civil service ‘areopagus’.
The elements of the investigation, known at the time of writing, show that Mr PANZERI and MEP Andrea COZZOLINO (President of the Delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries) took their orders from the Directorate General of Studies and Documentation (DGED), i.e. the Moroccan secret services, headed by Mr Mohammed-Yassine MANSOURI, a personal friend of the Moroccan King, Mohamed VI. Analysis of the typology of the parliamentary affiliation of the corrupt seems to indicate that the majority of corrupt Euro-Parliamentarians are from the S&D group (which includes the Spanish PSOE and the French Socialist Party), although parliamentarians from right-wing groups are also ‘part of the lot’. This would explain why the European Left’s amendment calling for the denunciation of Morocco was not adopted. Some EU MEPs are now wondering who among the European socialists gave the order to vote against awarding the Sakharov Prize (2021) to a human rights defender (Ms Sultana KHAYA) in favour of a Bolivian far-right candidate prosecuted for genocide and convicted of a coup d’état.
Efficient “socio-corrupting engineering
It is clear that Morocco has developed an efficient corruption structure. This ‘corrupting machine’ is well oiled, as it has been tested over time and space. Indeed, corruption in Morocco is entrenched and institutionalised, it is a normal behaviour that shocks no one (2). It is present in all areas, including elections and company tenders. For example, during the last elections, the Moroccan political parties PAM and PJD publicly accused the RNI party of bribing voters and polling station supervisors. The president of the RNI, Aziz AKHANOUCH, who is currently Prime Minister, was recently accused of attempted corruption by a former MEP. Another example of its pervasiveness is the economy, where during the covid pandemic, public authorities were accused of “relaxing public procurement procedures”, which facilitates corruption.
So, corruption is a systemic fact in Morocco (3), tolerated and even indirectly encouraged by the authorities. Thus, the body created to fight corruption does not have the means or the independence to fulfil its task. Journalists and intellectuals who denounce this corruption are often repressed. The term “socio-corrupt engineering” is used to describe this situation, which consists of the use of subterfuges and means of corruption, in a systemic manner, under the direction of the security apparatus (the secret services, in the broad sense), and affecting all aspects of society.
From the investigation, it is concluded that several Moroccan ministries and experts were involved in this corruption, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Economy, the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Interior, experts from the Moroccan Ministry of Justice and experts in social science/psychology. This “socio-corrupting engineering” is not limited to Europe. It began in the 1990s with Morocco’s access to sensitive documents in an international body, the UN Identification Commission, thus enabling it to sabotage the organisation of the referendum in Western Sahara. Indeed, it was at that time that the former UN Secretary General, Mr. Pérez de CUELLAR, requested the modification of the report of the future list of voters, to make it more favourable to Morocco (4). As a result, he was appointed vice-president of a subsidiary of a Moroccan holding company (ONA).
Morocco thus routinely uses corruption to influence political decisions outside its borders, notably through structures such as institutes or NGOs. The EuroMedA Foundation (a foundation headed by former Moroccan ministers) is one of the most important in Europe, given the size of its membership and its ramifications. It has been very active in this “engineering” by Morocco to pass the extension of the Morocco-EU trade agreement to the territory of occupied Western Sahara as legitimate before the European Parliament. This agreement, which is illegal because it includes products from this occupied part, was annulled by the European Court of Justice in 2021.
Among the personalities gravitating around or within EuroMedA, we find the MEP Frédérique RIES, the former MEP Gilles PARGNEAUX, and Patricia LALLONDE, regulars of the trips to Morocco.
LALLONDE, was on the board of EuroMedA, while being the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the proposal to extend the said EU-Morocco trade agreement to occupied Western Sahara! This territory, let us recall, is illegally occupied by Morocco.
This is therefore a clear conflict of interest for MEPs who sit in the structures of foreign countries, in exchange for material and pecuniary rewards. This is contrary to the recommendations of the code of conduct for EU parliamentarians. This is all the more serious as this conflict of interests, this corruption, aims at plundering the wealth of the Saharawi People, and making European citizens accomplices. Complicit in an illegal colonisation and greenwashing of agricultural and fisheries products (given the production and fishing methodology used), taken without the consent of the Polisario Front, the sole representative of the Saharawi People.
Why and how could this happen in the heart of democracy and law?
Corruption has existed for a long time, such as in the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, which contributed to the break-up of the Church and the rise of Protestantism. Protestant countries have a low corruption index compared to Catholic countries. Most of the corrupt in the EU, through Morocco, come from Latin and Catholic countries. Like the sellers of “indulgences”, the corrupt, using their legislative privileges, have betrayed the European citizens.
Faced with this Moroccan ‘machina’, with socio-economic and international consequences, it is necessary to understand the underlying causes, and not only the narrative of the corrupt. Why has it gone on for so long? Is it the absence of ethical codes? Is it intentional? Is it the poor protection of whistleblowers?
Recently an “EU Prosecutor’s Office” was created to fight corruption. But its actions are limited to offences against the EU budget. Yet the EU is not helpless against this scourge. Indeed, the “code of conduct for MEPs”, if made mandatory, would surely limit the Lerna Hydra of the “Moroccan machina”. And it would become proactive if it were reinforced by measures to protect whistleblowers.
As citizens, we must denounce the blatant lack of reaction in Europe, and particularly in the European Parliament, to this serious crime. It is true that the parliamentarians have created a committee of enquiry, but at the same time they have refused to denounce Morocco, despite its greater involvement than that of Qatar. This does not augur well for the fight against this scourge worthy of a banana republic.
Let’s hope that the EU President’s speech will be followed by concrete actions for the future but also to question the consequences of these “stolen votes” by corrupt people and to give back dignity to the European people. Because sweeping the dust under the carpet would reinforce impunity and the “all rotten” discourse; criminal in the face of the rise of the extreme right.
(0): https://www.fightimpunity.com/
(3): https://laquotidienne.ma/article/alaune/le-maroc-s-enlise-dans-une-corruption-a-caractere-systemique
