From the publication on the internet of the “Maroc-Leaks”, a series of confidential Rabat government documents which is the substratum of the Belgian judiciary’s investigation into the corruption network that has infiltrated the European Parliament, undermines the credibility of the EU institutions, is sketched. A hacker managed to extrapolate the dense internal correspondence that Moroccan diplomacy was conducting with the Rabat Foreign Minister in order to keep him constantly updated on the “mission of the Kingdom of Morocco”. Brussels, regarding the strategic issue of Western Sahara: an area disputed with the Polisario Front and very valuable to the Moroccan government, which extracts phosphates (white gold) from the subsoil. The aim of the “mission” is to put pressure on the euro chamber and in particular on the work of the joint EU-Morocco Commission, von der Pier Antonio Panzeri (former socialist MEP arrested), 2017 Abderrahim Atmoun (current Moroccan Ambassador to Poland) and finally Pd MEP Andrea Cozzolino (now suspended after being implicated in the investigation).
FURTHER INFORMATION
Qatargate, false payslips for staff: investigations into other MPs
MEDIATION
These documents show how the more than decade-long relationship between the Maghreb state and Panzeri was born, the link that would have been used to “sway” the other socialist MPs who were notoriously more sensitive to the situation of the Saharawi refugees. There is an “urgent” letter outlining the positions of the political groups with regard to the International Trade Commission’s vote on the EU-Morocco agricultural agreement. “There is strong pressure within the S&D group against the agreement, because of the alleged impact on European agriculture, but also in view of the opportunistically instrumentalized Sahara question. The group discussed the issue in meetings described by various contacts of this mission as “stormy”. A “strong current within the S&D”, led by Panzeri, “is pushing for the separation of the agriculture agreement from the Sahara issue and promises to competent bodies of the European Parliament, in particular the Parliament, a debate on the latter question “External Affairs Committee”.
«A STRONG ALLY»
When Panzeri’s position seemed too partisan, Moroccan diplomacy immediately worked out the countermove, organizing a trip to Tindouf (in Algeria, on the border with the Saharawi refugee camps) for November 7, 2011 to reconstruct his image of impartiality in the eyes the euro chamber. “The visit to Tindouf is essential to boost Mr Panzeri’s credibility with Algeria and the Polisario Front, after they accused him of being pro-Moroccan. It is not in Morocco’s interest for Panzeri to be perceived as such – reads the confidential message from the ambassador to the EU to the then foreign minister in Rabat – In the European Parliament, great attention is paid to the Sahara issue, which is regularly raised by MEPs and heavily exploited by the pro-Polisarios, who exert great pressure (especially on the Social Democrats). The best way to manage this pressure is to contain it within the framework of the Foreign Affairs Commission and channel it through Panzeri, who is capable of being a credible interlocutor. Then Ambassador Menouar Alem (now deceased) praised the arrested former Socialist MEP, speaking of his “constructive ambiguity”, of his political agenda, which is “sometimes carried out in a dangerous manner, but always with tact and mastery”, and of the “ability “. to disturb’: all this demonstrates how it can be ‘a formidable ally or a formidable adversary’. “Aware of the delicacy of his visit to the fields of Tindouf (preceded by a four-day crossing to Rabat, ed. ed.), he is making considerable efforts not to endanger his “affairs” with Morocco definitively,” the note concludes .
The North African state’s diplomacy went on high alert when Federica Mogherini (Pd) was appointed High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and immediately devised a “counteroffensive”. “At the beginning of the motion against Morocco in the Italian Parliament, Mogherini took positions in favor of the separatist thesis on the Sahara issue. It is therefore necessary to work with friends of Morocco (high-level European officials and members of the S&D party, notably Gilles Pargneaux and Antonio Panzeri) to raise awareness of this issue,” said a confidential statement dated September 11, 2014. Years go by and Panzeri continues to exert his “influence” on the Sahara question: in 2019 he voted – together with 414 other MPs – for the fisheries agreement, which also explicitly includes Western Sahara; Annulled by the European Court of Justice in 2021 precisely because it was drafted without the consent of the Saharawi people.