Inside Morocco’s efforts to deprave the European Parliament

If there hadn’t been a World Cup happening, the corruption scandal rocking the European Union may need carried a really totally different title.

The probe that may develop into Qatargate started after Belgium was tipped off by “a trusted European intelligence service” that two Italian members of the European Parliament had been bribed by Moroccan spies to “promote the Kingdom’s pursuits” within the chamber, in response to the primary Belgian secret providers report of the investigation, obtained by POLITICO. 

Certainly, it wasn’t lengthy after the primary suspects have been in custody that Belgian authorities issued a notification for the arrest for Abderrahim Atmoun, Morocco’s ambassador to Poland, drawing up paperwork for worldwide notifications for his arrest.

Atmoun, in response to the request for a European arrest warrant seen by POLITICO, acquired funds from Moroccan authorities to bribe members of European Parliament “so as both to forestall the vote on resolutions which might be in opposition to Moroccan pursuits, or to move resolutions which might be in favor of Morocco and would thus contribute to bettering the picture of this nation.”

The investigative decide within the case additionally requested French authorities to grab Atmoun’s property in France, the place he owns a lodge and an condominium. By then Atmoun, who can be a French citizen, was gone, presumably again in Morocco and out of attain of European Union authorities, in response to a Belgian secret providers report.

However whereas Belgian authorities might have taken a stab at nabbing Atmoun, no person in Europe appears to be going after his employers within the Moroccan authorities and secret providers.

Regardless of allegations by Belgian investigators that the Moroccan state masterminded a multi-year corruption operation aimed on the coronary heart of European Union democracy, no European chief has formally condemned Rabat. Diplomatic relations between Morocco and the EU might have deteriorated — however cooperation carries on in lots of areas, together with migration and the battle in opposition to terrorism.

When a serious earthquake struck in September, the European Fee shortly pledged €1 million in support. In October, Spain, Portugal and Morocco collectively agreed to host the 2030 World Cup.

That very same month, European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen hosted Morocco’s head of presidency, Aziz Akhannouch, at her Berlaymont headquarters. The 2 mentioned methods to strengthen the EU-Morocco relationship, and the scenario within the Center East after the October 7 assaults on Israel.

A Fee spokesperson declined to touch upon whether or not Rabat’s alleged corruption of European democracy got here up in these talks. 

Prolonged courtship

The cash-for-influence scandal started, in response to a declassified report by the Belgian secret providers, with a partnership between Atmoun, Pier Antonio Panzeri — then a member of the European Parliament and chair of its Subcommittee on Human Rights — and Andrea Cozzolino, one other MEP.

(Panzeri struck a plea take care of investigators acknowledging he participated in acts of corruption with Morocco. Cozzolino’s lawyer declined to remark.)

Earlier than turning his consideration to Brussels, Atmoun — who studied in France and speaks French, Arabic, English and Italian, in response to the request for his arrest — had loved a profitable profession in Paris. As chair of a friendship group between Morocco and the French Senate, the Moroccan diplomat hobnobbed below golden ceilings with the crème of the French elite — in 2011 incomes the légion d’honneur or Legion of Honor, certainly one of France’s highest decorations, from then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Atmoun was bold. His eyes have been set on a prestigious posting for instance as ambassador to Rome or Paris, in response to two individuals who have identified him for a decade, granted anonymity resulting from concern of retaliation.

The European Parliament was rising in significance; new powers below the Lisbon Treaty had given it an essential say over laws and the composition of the European Fee. However Rabat sought out various channels to have interaction with the chamber. 

“Morocco’s diplomacy was basically centered on the French lawmakers, however we couldn’t attain the EU Parliament by them,” stated a lobbyist who labored with Atmoun on the time, likewise granted anonymity as others quoted right here. For the enterprising Moroccan diplomat, Panzeri was the best way in.

Rabat had recognized the Italian MEP as somebody who might both be a “weighty ally” or a “formidable adversary,” in response to a 2011 Moroccan diplomatic cable included in a 2014 hack of presidency paperwork authenticated by French media. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than Atmoun and Panzeri have been working collectively as co-chairs of the Morocco-EU joint parliamentary committee, a gathering of lawmakers from the 2 sides of the Mediterranean.

The leaked cables reward “outstanding behind-the-scenes work … undertaken by Co-Presidents Panzeri and Atmoun to rally the utmost variety of MEP members of the Intergroup, and extra significantly the Italians” on a variety of points that have been essential to Rabat.

There was little query nonetheless over who was the courter and who was the courted.

Confessing to investigators after his arrest, Panzeri detailed how Atmoun supplied him monetary assist for his 2014 electoral marketing campaign. The diplomat lined the associated fee, greater than €50,000, of a celebration in Milan searching for the votes of the Moroccan diaspora. Panzeri and his household acquired invites to go to Marrakech, the place they have been typically put up within the five-star La Mamounia lodge.

It was on a go to to Morocco, in August 2014, that the connection between Atmoun and Panzeri acquired a royal endorsement. King Mohammed VI, shielded from the simmering warmth by a big burgundy umbrella, awarded each males the Order of the Throne, a state ornament given as a reward for providers to the dominion.

Just like the king and most attendees, Atmoun wore a standard gown fabricated from white material, which is commonly related to purity within the Islamic custom. Panzeri acquired the award in a darkish, loose-fitting go well with.  

Morocco’s embassy in Brussels declined to remark for the story. Atmoun didn’t reply to efforts to contact him. Morocco’s international affairs minister has denied the nation’s involvement within the Qatargate scandal. Qatar has rejected allegations it interfered in European Union democracy.

Fish, territory and human rights

Atmoun’s alleged corruption of the European Parliament happened as Morocco was intensifying its efforts to push its priorities with the EU.

Crucial amongst these, in response to a report by the Belgian secret providers, have been an settlement on fishing rights off the Moroccan coast, deflecting criticism of the dominion’s human rights report and the standing of Western Sahara, a disputed territory south of the nation the place Rabat has waged a decades-long battle in opposition to an armed independence motion led by the Polisario Entrance.

In 2016, Mohammed VI declared Western Sahara his “prime precedence” in relation to international coverage. 

The king’s speech was adopted by an abrupt change in Moroccan diplomacy, stated Aboubakr Jamaï, an exiled Moroccan journalist who’s now dean on the enterprise and worldwide relations faculty of the Institute for American Universities. The nation’s diplomats suffered “a kind of hubris,” Jamaï added, and the nation’s secret providers “began doing issues they didn’t enable themselves to do earlier than.”

A Brussels-based lobbyist who has labored for Morocco stated that whereas Rabat was not among the many greatest spenders when it got here to influencing native officers, Morocco was “one of the vital aggressive” international locations that they had seen. 

Within the context of Qatargate, Morocco’s diplomatic doubling down translated into Atmoun taking his relationship with Panzeri, and the European Parliament, to the following degree.

In 2019, in response to the report by the Belgian secret providers, Atmoun brokered “a monetary deal” between his Italian good friend and the Moroccan spy service, often called the DGED. In his confession to investigators, which has been seen by POLITICO, Panzeri stated this amounted to he and his assistant Francesco Giorgi every receiving €50,000 a yr in change for his or her lobbying for the dominion’s pursuits. In Giorgi’s confessions, additionally seen by POLITICO, he confirmed receiving cash from Morocco.

Between 2019 and 2022, Atmoun took half in not less than three conferences in Rabat with Panzeri and Mohamed Yassine Mansouri, the pinnacle of the DGED, in response to the Belgian secret providers report. He was additionally current when Cozzolino, one other Italian MEP accused of corruption who declined to remark for this story, met with the DGED in Warsaw.

Atmoun, who had simply been promoted to the function of ambassador to Poland, was nonetheless very a lot concerned in EU politics, touring to Brussels or assembly with MEPs, in response to public information and the key providers report.

“Atmoun, being an extroverted particular person, needed to know the biggest variety of folks attainable,” Panzeri advised investigators. “And definitely, those that might be helpful for the Moroccan trigger.”

‘Uncle Atmoun’

Till December 2022, when information of the Belgian investigation broke, Atmoun appeared to be delivering on his efforts.

The Moroccan diplomat continued his relationship with Panzeri even after the Italian politician had left the European Parliament in 2019 and based an NGO known as Struggle Impunity. 

On wiretaps recorded by the Belgian police, Atmoun and Panzeri could be heard speaking about girls or mocking Giorgi and Cozzolino, the opposite MEP allegedly enlisted by Morocco, in response to transcripts of the recording included in a police report. On one recording, they plan a household vacation collectively like previous pals, earlier than Panzeri asks for extra: one other ticket purchased by Morocco, nights at a lodge for his son-in-law. Behind Atmoun’s again, Panzeri and Giorgi name Atmoun “il terrone,” a derogatory Italian time period that means any individual of Southern or peasant origins.

Panzeri additionally helped Atmoun ingratiate himself with different members of the European Parliament who had authority over information by which Rabat was . Cozzolino was a part of the committee investigating Morocco’s use of adware and was chair of the Parliament’s Maghreb delegation. 

Maria Enviornment, the pinnacle of the subcommittee on human rights, would typically come up in Panzeri’s dialog with Atmoun. On not less than one event, she joined them for dinner. In response to a transcript of a January 2022 dialog by the Belgian secret providers, Atmoun invited her and Panzeri for a “work” journey in Marrakech or Essaouira. Enviornment advised the diplomat her son additionally deliberate to go to Morocco. Atmoun stated that when her son arrived within the nation he ought to attain out to “uncle Atmoun.” Later that yr, Enviornment’s son Ugo Lemaire made a visit that was paid for by an organization in Casablanca, the police paperwork present. 

Police have raided Enviornment’s home and her son’s as a part of the Qatargate investigation though she has not been charged or formally questioned. Her lawyer didn’t reply to a request for remark. Her son’s lawyer declined to remark.

In response to Belgian police stories seen by POLITICO, Panzeri was instrumental in influencing votes in opposition to two Moroccan activists shortlisted for the European parliament’s prestigious Sakharov human rights award. Belgian media Le Soir additionally reported that Panzeri’s assistant Giorgi stated he and his boss billed operations to Atmoun that included passing a decision focusing on Algeria and guaranteeing that mentions of Morocco disappeared from a Parliament report on human rights violations.

Blowback

It’s unlikely that Moroccan officers in the present day see Atmoun’s efforts as successful. Fallout from the Qatargate scandal has rolled again most, if not all, of his efforts.

In January 2023, simply over a month after Panzeri was arrested together with different suspects within the case, the European Parliament voted to condemn Morocco’s human rights report for the first time in 25 years. “MEPs are deeply involved about allegations that the Moroccan authorities have corrupted Members of the European Parliament,” the chamber added in an announcement.

In response, Moroccan lawmakers decried the Parliament’s movement as “an unacceptable assault in opposition to the sovereignty, dignity and independence of judicial establishments within the kingdom,” and voted to evaluate ties with the European Parliament. 

The diplomatic dispute is straining a relationship by which both sides relies on the opposite. The EU is Morocco’s largest commerce companion. Rabat can be a serious recipient of European support. For Europe, Morocco is a vital intelligence companion within the battle in opposition to Islamist terrorism. Some 2 million members of the Moroccan diaspora dwell in Europe, cultivating cultural and financial ties between the 2 areas.

Like different North African international locations, Morocco has typically leveraged migration throughout political disputes. In 2021, for instance, it allowed 8,000 migrants to cross into Spain’s North African enclave of Ceuta in 2021 in retaliation for Madrid’s determination to permit a Polisario Entrance chief to hunt medical care within the nation. Since Qatargate, Belgium has discovered it more and more troublesome to ship migrants to Morocco when their asylum claims are unsuccessful, Belgian Inside Minister Annelies Verlinden advised POLITICO in Could.

A check of what is going to prevail — outrage over Qatargate or the EU’s dedication to proceed on as if nothing had occurred — is more likely to happen later this yr, when the EU’s highest court docket is predicted to concern a verdict on a case introduced by the Polisario Entrance.

The European Courtroom of Justice is contemplating an attraction by the Fee in opposition to a ruling that struck down a 2019 fisheries deal between Morocco and the EU on the grounds that Brussels hadn’t secured the consent of the Western Saharan folks, as represented by the Polisario Entrance. 

Earlier than information of the scandal broke, Rabat had pals in Brussels it might have counted on to make the case for its pursuits. The query now’s whether or not Morocco nonetheless has anyone left to defend it.

In the meantime, Atmoun is believed to be in Morocco. After information of the corruption scandal broke, he “handed quite a lot of time in his residence,” in response to a declassified report by the Belgian secret providers. He had deliberate to spend the New 12 months holidays in Morocco however left early after information of the corruption scandal broke in early December final yr. He saved the date of his flight a secret, attributing the haste, the report provides, to his mom’s poor well being.