Belgian MEP resigns as president of the human rights subcommittee in full controversy over ‘Qatargate’

BRUSSELS, Jan. 11 () –

The Belgian socialist MEP Maria Arena has announced this Wednesday her resignation as president of the Human Rights subcommittee of the European Parliament so as not to affect the work of the parliamentary committee after her name has been linked to several defendants for alleged Qatari bribery of MEPs , although she is not being formally investigated by the Belgian Justice and maintains her record as an MEP.

Already last December, Arena announced through his Twitter profile that he was “temporarily” leaving the presidency of this subcommittee “after the revelations of suspicions of corruption linked to Qatar in the European Parliament” and that one of his parliamentary assistants was investigated. “in connection with this matter”.

Then he said that he was taking that step temporarily “until everything was clarified” and this Wednesday he confirmed that his resignation as president of the subcommittee is final, in a statement sent to the Belgian agency. While waiting for the MEPs to elect another president, the first vice-president of the subcommittee will provisionally assume the position.

However, the socialist MEP has not been charged nor has the Belgian Justice requested the European Parliament to suspend her immunity, as it has done with other MEPs involved, but her name appears as a frequent contact of the former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri that the investigators consider main player in the network to reach other MEPs and parliamentary staff.

Panzeri, founder of the NGO ‘Fight Impunity’ through which contacts were made with MEPs, is the main defendant in the investigation that was revealed last December, when the Belgian Justice made the first arrests and searches in the offices and homes of people linked to the European Parliament.

In addition to Panzeri, three other people remain in pretrial detention in Belgium accused of belonging to a criminal organization, money laundering and corruption, including the dismissed vice-president of the European Parliament Eva Kaili and her partner, parliamentary assistant Francesco Giorgi. The fourth detainee is Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, head of the NGO ‘No Peace without Justice’.

In addition, in the plenary session next week in Strasbourg (France) the European Parliament will activate the formal procedure to process the request of the Belgian Justice to suspend the parliamentary immunity of two other MEPs, the Belgian Marc Tarabella and the Italian Andrea Cozzolino, to be investigated.