Marocgate: New Evidence of Paying MEPs Off to Better Plunder Sahrawis

A lengthy investigation by a French news website presented new evidence about the Moroccan regime’s involvement in paying bribes to members of the European Parliament to “legitimize” its occupation of Western Sahara, plunder its wealth and turn a blind eye to human rights violations, confirming that Rabat’s desire to annex this land occupied since 1975 explains the gifts and the generosity that was offered to the MEPs.

The investigative website “Off Investigation” explained that the Kingdom of Morocco has used for many years the former members of the European Parliament, Antonio Panzeri and Gilles Pargneaux, targeted by the Belgian Prosecutor’s investigation into the European Parliament’s corruption scandal involving Morocco, to defend its thesis on Western Sahara, saying; “Rabat’s desire to annex this territory occupied since 1975 could explain the generous gifts of the Moroccan monarchy behind the scenes of the European parliament. On March 2, the European Parliament announced that it was going to take civil action in the Marocgate affair”.

According to the investigation; “the revelations of the Brussels public prosecutor’s office and the Belgian and Italian media on possible acts of corruption of MEPs, and recent declarations by the Belgian intelligence services according to which a “group of MEPs’ (ed.) worked in exchange for support electoral orchestrated by the Moroccan authorities and considerable sums of money paid clandestinely, in cash, by Morocco”.

The investigation stemmed from a fundamental question: “for what purposes did the regime of Mohammed VI corrupt these MEPs, in particular Antonio Panzeri, with whom the investigators found 700,000 euros in cash? What interests does Morocco wish to defend to the point of offering such suitcases of banknotes?”.

The same source indicated that these bribed MEPs adopted the Moroccan discourse, which aims to “justify” the occupation of Western Sahara; Throughout our investigation, a common denominator emerges: Western Sahara. According to the Moroccan journalist exiled in Spain, Ali Lmrabet, it is “the number one national cause” of the kingdom of Mohammed VI: “This question is everything. If tomorrow, Morocco lost the Sahara, decades of sacrifices would be shattered”.

The investigative website quoted its source as saying that Panzeri was not referring at all to the organization of the self-determination referendum in Western Sahara. Rather, he believes that the alternative to this proposition is recognition of Morocco’s alleged “sovereignty” over Western Sahara.

As for the violation of human rights in the occupied Sahrawi lands, Panzeri said, according to the website’s source, “It is a problem that needs to be addressed by the United Nations, away from self-determination.” The French website also quoted testimony from one of its sources, who confirmed that the former Italian MEP always differentiated between the Sahrawis living in Western Sahara and the Sahrawis in refugee camps.

The investigation revealed a confidential document dated October 27, 2011, sent by the Mission of the Kingdom of Morocco to the European Union, the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, stressing that “it is not in Morocco’s interest to view Panzeri in this way.”

As for Gilles Pargneaux, who made several trips to Morocco, the investigative website highlighted his work to protect the reputation of the Kingdom, and among what he said was that in the official report of the meetings of the Friendship Group between the European Union and Morocco, which were held between January 31 and February 4, 2013, the French MP praised with the “advancement” of Moroccan democracy.

He recalled that on the occasion of a trip to Morocco organized during this period, Gilles Pargneaux received, by order of the Moroccan king, a medal during an official ceremony in the Moroccan Parliament.

Among what this MEP has also done in favour of Morocco is the creation of the Euromeda Foundation in 2018, which claims on its website that it has a “mission to promote a cohesive space between Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa with common and stable prosperity”.

The same investigation believes that the European Union and its institutions have surrendered to Morocco’s agenda, highlighting that some of Morocco’s friends themselves admit that Western Sahara is undergoing “occupation”, pointing out that the European Parliament approved a resolution calling for an end to the harassment of journalists in Morocco last January.

“After turning a blind eye for decades to Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara, the European Commission is trying to demonstrate its economic benefits. A cynical and mercantile strategy that risks being very expensive”, the website published in the investigation’s second part.

“There is just one catch: this business thrives based on arrangements that have been repeatedly denounced as illegal. The international community has never recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, this long desert coastal strip of 230,000 km2 wedged between Morocco to the north, Algeria to the east and Mauritania to the south. As early as 2015, the European judges of the General Court of the EU considered that by facilitating trade, “the Union… risks indirectly encouraging (the) violations of the fundamental rights” of the population of Western Sahara and even “to benefit “. They said it again in 2016, 2018, and 2021… and could do it again in 2023”, it added.

The investigation raised many questions: “Did the Europeans methodically support and finance a policy of colonization, in defiance of international law? On reading a working document dated January 13, 2023, and issued by the Brussels Commission itself, the question does not really arise. Over thirty pages, with strong figures in support, its authors document the economic and demographic boom of the regions of Dakhla and Laayoune, the two major ports of Western Sahara” and “How, then, did we arrive at this delirious situation where European civil servants write a report which administers the proof of what their own institutions have been condemned for and continue to be prosecuted?”