by Marco Imarisio
Die Ppe: “It must be closed, it is a socialist crime scene”. Droi was first wielded by Panzeri, then a continuous exchange of collaborators
FROM OUR REPORTER
STRASBOURG – Paper is passed from hand to hand at the entrance to the Hemicycle. There is also the footnote in case further explanation is needed. «Here is a partial list of the issues discussed in the Droi, the Subcommittee on Human Rights, to which Antonio Panzeri’s organization has been invited many times to speak. We also included other occasions where instead the sister NGO was involved, led by Niccolò Figà-Talamanca, who runs this lobby and is considered one of the main suspects».
That’s what it boils down to. Al mors tua vita mea, awaiting further news. In this case, the service will be provided by the EPP, the main rival of the Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament, at the moment the only family affected – if not yet sunk – by an inquiry that promises not to be short. The list of suspicious encounters has everything, a bundle of each herb. The latest report concerns only the meeting of September 26 last year, at which the protection of the rights of Brazil’s indigenous people was on the agenda. There are also stages that were discussed somewhat during the Strasbourg plenary session. One in particular, that of last May 10th. The annual report of Fight Impunity, Panzeri’s NGO, will be presented at the Droi Hall, an event followed by a discussion of a report arguing that the UAE is trying to bribe MPs to allow them to act for “discrediting the image of rival countries like Qatar and Turkey”.
It’s a tome of more than two hundred pages that focuses on denouncing the lobbying activities of the “United Arab Emirates-European Union Parliamentary Friendship Group,” led by Spanish People’s Party MP Antonio López-Istúriz White and defined as a species the active mud machine against the hated Qatari rivals. External guests will also attend, including Stanford University professor Shelby Grossman and Italian-Palestinian journalist and writer Rula Jebreal. The promoter of the dossier is Figà-Talamanca. “There are strong negative prejudices against some Arab countries,” says the hostess, subcommittee chair Maria Arena, “which is no stranger to inappropriate lobbying by other competing countries.” So far so good, or almost. Because the Droi is really the crossroads of this still obscure history, the place where the people involved or mentioned in the investigation come together, who are often only guilty of having walked this path.
Panzeri was the coordinator of the Commission’s S&D group for almost ten years. On January 25, 2017, he was elected President. “By acclamation,” as a note from his group’s time emphasizes. The assumption of office entails the transfer of the presidency of the delegation for the Maghreb countries, which, after an interregnum of several weeks, passes to Antonio Cozzolino.
In 2019, the former secretary of the Milan Chamber of Labor retired and his historical assistant Francesco Giorgi joined the Neapolitan MEP. Maria Arena, the Belgian socialist MP of Sicilian origin, who has been linked to the more experienced Panzeri in all her activities since entering the European Parliament, is called to lead Droi. A de facto political couple, is the almost unanimous opinion in the corridors of Strasbourg. The continuous exchange of personnel also bears witness to this. The assistants of one become employees of the NGO that has since been founded by the other, with Giorgi, who has worked with both, serving as a connecting feature.
And this is where they part ways, at least in terms of reputation. If so far none of his former colleagues has shown that he knows Panzeri and thus has clear memory problems, that’s a different story at Arena. Born in Mons, daughter of an Italian immigrant who came to Belgium at the age of six and joined the mine at 14, she is a political parable left behind in a commitment to civil rights. The team of university graduates is based on shared militancy for the Palestinian cause, for ethnic minorities of all orders and genders. “Maybe it’s because all my life I’ve fought to be Belgian and not an immigrant,” she said one day. Maybe someone was taking advantage of that passion, maybe someone else couldn’t see.
But Panzeri’s Fight Impunity has benefited greatly from its partnership with the Droi Subcommittee. Panzeri’s NGO, founded in 2019, has never entered the Transparency Register, a mandatory file to receive funding. In 2021 he signed a €143,000 contract with the Research Office of the European Parliament. This required certification from at least one internal body. The Droi subcommittee would have taken care of it, it said from circles in the European Parliament. Nothing illegal. But too many twists. Yesterday the EPP called for the closure of the Human Rights Subcommittee. “This is a socialist crime scene that must be sealed,” said a spokesman for Manfred Weber. The expression is cruel, merciless. But unfortunately, there might be some truth to it.
December 15, 2022 (change December 15, 2022 | 23:40)
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