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Free flights, a secret deal and a corruption
storm: Inside the EU’s ‘Qatargate’ committee
In a sprawling criminal investigation, all roads lead
to the European Parliament’s subcommittee on human rights.
Photo-illustration
by Dato Parulava for POLITICO | Source images: Getty Images and Unsplash
BY EDDY WAX
JANUARY 11,
2023 4:00 AM CET
Maria Arena
is blaming her secretary.
The Socialist
MEP, who chairs the European Parliament’s human rights committee, accepted a
trip to Qatar — and then failed to declare properly that the Qatari government
paid for her flights and hotel, POLITICO can reveal.
Arena has
admitted the administrative misdemeanor, but blamed it on her office assistant
who she said did not complete the paperwork as required.
The senior
MEP could now face sanctions including a financial penalty of up to €10,140 or
being banned from representing the Parliament for a year, if she’s found to
have breached the institution’s code of conduct — but such penalties are rarely
enforced.
Her mistake
may amount to little more than a footnote amid the allegations of corruption
engulfing Brussels, with dramatic claims that the governments of Qatar and
Morocco handed out large sums of cash and gifts to get EU politicians to do
their bidding. Police seized €1.5 million in a series of raids last month.
But even
though Arena’s “error” may be small compared with the charges others are
facing, the human rights committee she leads is now at the center of the storm.
For the
first time, the extent of Qatar’s links to the committee can now be laid out in
full. A POLITICO investigation reveals: A special deal was struck by the Gulf
state and the EU panel’s former chair; how key criminal suspects worked with
the committee behind the scenes; and concerns that some parliamentary hearings
were unbalanced.
In the
Belgian authorities’ so-called Qatargate investigation, four people so far have
been hit with preliminary charges of corruption, money laundering and
participation in a criminal organization. Three of them have close connections
to the same committee.
The four
suspects are: Pier Antonio Panzeri, another socialist and a former MEP who
previously chaired the human rights committee; Francesco Giorgi, Panzeri’s
ex-assistant who has since worked for one of the committee’s current members;
and Giorgi’s partner, Eva Kaili, a Greek Socialist MEP who was ousted as vice
president of the Parliament after the Qatargate allegations emerged. The fourth
person held on the same preliminary charges is also intimately linked to this
panel of MEPs: Niccolò Figà-Talamanca.
Andrea
Cozzolino, another Socialist MEP serving on the committee, is now facing a
potential investigation as part of the corruption inquiry after Belgian
authorities asked for his immunity to be lifted. Cozzolino has denied
wrongdoing and said he would like immunity to be lifted to be able to clear his
name.
It is not
clear what these individuals are alleged to have done in terms of specific
acts. The prosecutor’s office has not publicly disclosed details of the charges
against them, beyond the broadest outlines.
But the
questions now swirling around these senior Brussels figures and the
Parliament’s human rights committee cut to the heart of the EU’s credibility
and its political legitimacy.
The
European Union’s historic commitment to human rights is one of its core
founding values, and this panel of MEPs serves as the custodian of those
principles within the Parliament. Even though it is not a legislative
powerhouse, the committee still plays an influential and agenda-setting role in
the public debate.
Known as
“DROI” in EU-shorthand for the French droits de l’homme, the group shines a
spotlight on human rights abuses by countries outside the bloc, garnering
international attention and making it an ideal target for lobbying.
The
question facing Arena and her colleagues now is whether this collective of MEPs
has become nothing more than a zombie panel, infiltrated by foreign powers who
use it to whitewash their own human rights records.
Arena
herself is not a suspect in the criminal investigation. She strongly denies any
wrongdoing and passionately rejects claims that her committee is anything other
than a fully legitimate body doing vital work. She temporarily stood aside from
her role as chair when the criminal inquiry began.
Some of her
colleagues remain deeply concerned, all the same.
Free hit
Hannah
Neumann, a German MEP who is the Greens’ spokesperson in DROI, is also head of
a separate parliamentary Delegation for Relations with the Arab Peninsula. She
told POLITICO she was uncomfortable watching witnesses at the human rights
committee given a free pass to attack Qatar’s political enemies like the UAE or
Saudi Arabia.
Neumann
said: “It was sometimes difficult for me, to see Qatar being allowed to make
its points at length.” Doha’s rivals like UAE or Saudi Arabia “were harshly
attacked by NGOs, some of them with unclear funding, without being able to
defend themselves in the sessions,” she said. “Let me be clear, they have all
their human rights problems and it is good that we address all of them, but the
way this happened in DROI sometimes had an imbalance.”
For
Neumann, one meeting in particular stands out.
At 5:55
p.m. on May 10 last year, Arena was chairing a committee session in room 4Q1 of
the Parliament’s József Antall building in Brussels. Wearing a pale,
pastel-yellow jacket and pendant earrings, she smiled as she leaned in toward
her desk microphone. Then she formally opened an “exchange of views on the
human rights impact of foreign interference by Gulf countries.” She invited her
key expert witness, NGO boss Nicola Giovannini, to present his evidence.
Giovannini,
in a crisp white shirt and a dark tie, presented a 237-page report published by
Droit au Droit, the small NGO he leads. He declined to say who funded the
paper, but its target was clear enough: The United Arab Emirates, he alleged,
was using shady lobbying tactics to make Brussels dance to its tune.
The UAE has
long been one of Qatar’s staunchest adversaries.
The hearing
took place six months before the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. It could have been an
opportunity for lawmakers to discuss Doha’s efforts to put a positive spin on
the football tournament, following years of outcry about the mistreatment of
migrant workers in Qatar. Instead, the speakers focused on the activities of
Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two of Qatar’s fiercest rivals in the region.
What makes
Giovannini’s appearance at this committee hearing significant in the context of
the Qatargate controversy is not just what he said about Qatar’s enemies; it is
that he held another position at the same time he was running Droit au Droit.
He was public affairs coordinator for No Peace Without Justice, a bigger human
rights NGO that has links to the Qatari government and is itself now ensnared
in the Belgian prosecutors’ inquiry.
‘Nothing to
hide’
“We’ve got
nothing to hide,” said Giovannini, as he set out his report to MEPs that day.
“There’s certainly not any puppet masters working behind our organization.” Yet
he did not disclose his role at No Peace Without Justice. Nor did Arena, who
was chairing the meeting. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by
Giovannini, who did not reply to multiple attempts by POLITICO to contact him.
Arena told POLITICO that it is up to speakers to decide whether they declare
their other jobs or not.
Giovannini’s
boss at No Peace Without Justice was Niccolò Figà-Talamanca, one of the four
suspects now detained in prison on preliminary corruption charges.
Figà-Talamanca,
too, had a role in that same May 10 committee hearing, helping behind the
scenes to organize the session. Two emails seen by POLITICO suggest he played a
part in coordinating the meeting and acting as an unofficial liaison between
speakers and the committee.
People
familiar with the inner workings of parliamentary committees said that although
this arrangement did not constitute breaking any hard-and-fast rules, it was
still odd, especially as No Peace Without Justice did not appear on the
hearing’s agenda that day. “I am certain it will be a highly memorable session,
with great impact on how the EP [European Parliament] and the EU in general
addresses influence operations,” Figà-Talamanca wrote to prospective speakers
in one of the emails.
A lawyer
for Figà-Talamanca argued that his behind-the-scenes involvement in that
hearing was part of the normal human rights advocacy that his NGO routinely
carried out at the European Parliament, on human rights topics in countries
from Afghanistan to Brazil.
“In a
democratic society, such legitimate human rights advocacy is essential to the
good functioning of democratic institutions and certainly should not be a
reason for people to be put in prison,” the lawyer’s statement continued. Arena
did not reply when asked why Figà-Talamanca had this behind-the-scenes role in
organizing the committee hearing on May 10.
That same
day, Arena invited representatives of Fight Impunity, Panzeri’s NGO, to present
its annual report to her committee. Both Fight Impunity and No Peace Without
Justice are registered at the same plush address on 41 Rue Ducale in Brussels,
opposite the royal park.
As a
reminder: Panzeri is Arena’s predecessor as chair of the committee. He is now
held on preliminary charges, alongside Figà-Talamanca.
Shortly
before that hearing, on May 8 and 9, Arena herself was in Doha, on a trip paid
for by the government of Qatar. Her purpose was to take part in a workshop on
human rights held by Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee, entitled “The European
Union and Human Rights.” Another attendee was Figà-Talamanca, whose travel and
accommodation were also provided by Qatar.
Arena
defended her participation in the workshop, telling POLITICO: “The meeting in
Doha was interesting to better understand the human rights policy of the
country and how it fits in with the announced reforms. The costs were carried
by the human rights committee of Qatar.”
Maria
Arena, member of the European Parliament | Photo via European Parliament
“I was just
invited to give a word of introduction on the importance of human rights and
their universality,” Arena said. She denied that the Parliament co-organized
the workshop, despite a photo showing her speaking at a lectern bearing the
Parliament’s logo.
However,
Arena apologized for failing to declare the meeting in line with Parliament’s
transparency rules for paid-for trips, after her flights and hotel were
provided by Qatar. “It’s an error,” she said, adding that her secretary was to
blame for failing to declare any of her foreign trips despite Arena having
asked her to do so. “I have just asked her why this mission wasn’t recorded.
She replies that she has not recorded any foreign missions. It’s therefore an
error that I am asking her to correct immediately,” Arena said.
The deal
The
committee’s friendly relationship with Qatar did not start last May. In fact,
it goes back to Panzeri’s time as chair, during which he made a special
arrangement with the Gulf state.
Panzeri, an
Italian Socialist who was an MEP for 15 years, led the committee in the period
before leaving office, from 2017 until 2019, when Arena took over.
In 2018,
Panzeri traveled to Doha with his then-assistant Francesco Giorgi — another of
the four chief suspects in the investigation. While in Qatar, they met with
members of the government and, according to someone who worked on the committee
at the time, struck a special deal with Qatar’s state-appointed human rights
committee.
The
existence of this “memorandum of understanding,” though informal, is supported
by a Qatari government Instagram post and Qatari media reports. “It can be said
that we reached a bilateral agreement that serves both parties,” Panzeri was
quoted in Arabic-language media as having said. He was visiting Qatar at the
time — in April 2018 — to witness the impact of Saudi Arabia’s economic and
diplomatic embargo on the tiny peninsular nation, which he reportedly condemned
as devastating and unacceptable.
Once back
in Brussels, Panzeri informed colleagues on the committee about the deal,
according to the person who worked on the panel at the time.
No document
setting out the terms of the agreement is publicly available. But Arena
confirmed the existence of the accord to POLITICO, saying she did not renew it
when she took over the chairmanship of the committee from Panzeri in 2019.
Arena added that it was “not a commitment made in the name of the subcommittee
on human rights, but a bilateral accord between him and Qatar. I have signed no
MoU since I took over.”
There is no
suggestion that the agreement Panzeri struck with Qatar’s human rights
committee broke any laws or parliamentary rules. A lawyer for Panzeri declined
to engage with the specific point, saying: “For the moment, my client is being
described as worse than anybody, while he is detained and vulnerable. He is
incapable of reacting to 10 articles coming out each day during his detention.
Justice will be done in the courts, not in the press.”
However,
the Qataris appear to have benefited from prominent exposure for their points
of view since the deal was struck in 2018. The committee has given a platform
to Ali bin Samikh Al Marri, who was head of the Qatari human rights body when
Panzeri signed the accord, three times in the past four years.
Now Qatar’s
labor minister, Al Marri appeared most recently in front of Arena’s committee
in November, just days before the World Cup began. He used the opportunity to
argue that media reports about statistics on migrants’ deaths were part of a
“smear campaign” against his country.
Solid
partners
Whatever
Arena says, senior Qatari officials have clearly continued to value what they
see as a fruitful collaboration with her DROI committee. On May 14, 2022, the
Secretary-General of the NHRC Sultan bin Hassan Al Jamali described the
relationship between the two committees as a solid partnership, according to an
article in Qatari media about the workshop Arena and Figà-Talamanca attended.
Eva Kaili,
member of the European Parliament | Photo via European Parliament
There is no
suggestion that Arena is guilty of any criminal wrongdoing or was part of any
alleged conspiracy.
At times,
Arena’s own usually formidable human rights stance has appeared to soften when
Qatar was on the agenda. She voted against a push last year for Parliament to
agree a resolution condemning Qatar’s human rights record as World Cup hosts.
She told POLITICO she did so in order to allow for a “more rigorous” resolution
slamming Qatar in 2023.
With the
World Cup underway, Arena told MEPs in Strasbourg that some of the blame for
human rights failures in Qatar lay with businesses from Europe. “We need to
look at the responsibilities incumbent upon our companies,” she said. “Our
companies have not always respected minimum requirements in Qatari law.” While
there have been deaths, and compensation must be paid, “Qatar,” she said, “has
taken some steps forward.”
Arena
rejected the assertion she has been soft on Qatar. “My political positions
toward countries that don’t respect human rights have never suffered from any
kind of ambiguity and neither Qatar, nor Morocco, nor any other country has
benefited from privileged treatment,” she wrote to POLITICO.
In the
Belgian investigation, the wheels of justice are turning slowly. Among the
suspects, Kaili has denied the charges, while Panzeri and Giorgi have, via
their lawyers, declined to comment on them. A statement from No Peace Without
Justice said Figà-Talamanca had provisionally stepped aside from his duties,
adding that the NGO trusts the inquiry will clear him of wrongdoing. Qatar has
slammed the allegations against it as “discriminatory.”
So what now
for the Parliament’s human rights subcommittee? The top civil servant in charge
of DROI, Mychelle Rieu, had her office raided by police as part of the law enforcement
inquiry. A Parliament spokesperson said: “We are not aware of any direct
involvement of a staff [member] in the current issues. No member of the staff
has been arrested and the office you mention was sealed to retrieve computer
equipment related to the work of the Human Rights Subcommittee.”
The
center-right European People’s Party is calling for the committee’s work to be
halted while investigations unfold. “All facts and people involved revolve
around the Human Rights Committee (DROI) and some Members and advisers active
there,” said Manfred Weber, the EPP group chair.
Weber
called for Arena to be formally suspended as chair. “There are simply too many
unanswered questions around the extent of the Socialists’ involvement in this
corrupt network,” he said.
The panel
is due to meet again on January 25, with one of the vice chairs presiding.
Tim Ross
and Nicolas Camut contributed reporting.
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