Belgian Socialist Party MEP Marie Arena has resigned today as chairperson of the European Parliament’s subcommittee on human rights, according to the Belgian news agency Belga.

Marie Arena said today that she has decided to permanently step down as chairman of the commission, although she had already resigned from her duties in early December following the revelations of a corruption scandal by Qatar and Morocco.

Unlike her colleague, MEP from the Belgian socialist Marc Tarabella, the Belgian authorities did not demand the lifting of Marie Arena’s parliamentary immunity from the European Parliament. “The Belgian authorities did not demand that my parliamentary immunity be lifted, and neither my office nor my house was searched, and I was not questioned in any way by the judiciary,” Marie Arena told the Belga news agency.

The Belgian MEP is not accused of corruption, but her name is regularly mentioned in the Belgian media, mainly due to her close contacts with former Italian MEP Antonio Panzeri, who is in custody on charges of organized crime, corruption and money laundering. .

According to Politico today, Mari Arena admitted that the Qatari government provided her with travel and accommodation in Doha in May 2022, without informing the competent agency of the European Parliament for reasons of transparency. During her trip to Doha, the Arena took part in a human rights conference organized by the Qatar National Human Rights Commission titled “The European Union and Human Rights”. Another participant was defendant Qatargate and detainee Nicolò Figa Talamanga, whose travel and accommodation were also provided by Qatar.

The human rights subcommittee’s “friendly relations” with Qatar did not begin in May last year, Politico notes. In fact, this goes back to when Pancheri was president of the commission (from 2017 to 2019) when he made a special deal with Qatar. Marie Arena succeeded him as chairman of the committee when Pancheri left office.

Source: APE/MEB