We are barely approaching the end of the first month of the year, but the European Union is already at its second corruption scandal of 2025. The shady money laundering business of former European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders became known to the public in December 2024, early January 2025. After his mandate expired and he has, therefore, lost his immunity, Reynders’ house was searched by the Belgian police. The former Commissioner is charged of having purchased lottery tickets to cover up the dubious origin of his money. Albeit late 2024 was not the first time Reynders was caught up in a controversy, he was nevertheless cleared by the European Parliament to take up the Justice Commissioner portfolio. In his position he was also a key figure in Brussels’ attempt to undermine Hungary’s access to EU funds and demonize the member state.
The ink has barely dried on the last articles written on Reynders’ scandal when an old controversy re-emerged: the so-called Qatargate scandal. Ex-S&D (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats) politician, former MEP Maria Arena has recently been charged with participating in a criminal organization. The Belgian politican is joining the line of former MEPs who are facing formal accusations of making political favours for countries such as Qatar and Morocco in exchange for monetary reward.
The Qatargate scandal first rocked the European Parliament in 2022. Since that multiple former MEPs, including Eva Kaili, Pier Antonio Panzeri, and Marc Tarabella, were accused of corruption. The cash-for-influence scandal broke in 2022 December, when the Belgian police carried out a series of raids in Brussels, seizing bags of cash. In Panzeri’s home alone the police found more than 600 000 EUR in cash. The first arrests were made about 12 months after the raids; the slowness of the investigation is being critiqued by multiple sources.
Arena was interviewed as a suspect in the matter by the police back in 2024, as well as by the investigating judge about a week ago. In 2023 a search in her home and entourage led to the discovery of 280,000 EUR in cash at her son’s place, who lives next door to her, according to Euractiv. Arena then said the cash has nothing to do with the case. After the discovery, a report came to light alleging that in a correspondence between Arena and Antonio Panzeri, the later thanked the MEP for ‘collecting’ money.
Antonio Panzeri is one of the key figures in the Qatargate scandal. In addition to having close ties to Panzeri, Arena was also one of the first people Eva Kaili, another former MEP implicated in the Qatargate scandal, called after the arrest of his partner. Albeit Arena’s close relationship with Panzeri and other implicated politicians was obvious early on in the scandal, she was not charged until now. Unlike the main defendants in the case, Arena is charged ‘only’ with participating in a criminal organization and not with corruption and money laundering.
Arena, who maintains her innocence, was chair of the European Parliament’s subcommittee on human rights—a chair that she inherited from Antonio Panzeri—, which she gave up amidst the scandal in January 2023. The MEP remained a member of the S&D even after her resignation from the post, unlike, for instance, Marc Tarabella, who was suspended by his party due to growing suspicion regarding his involvement in the corruption scandal. Albeit Arena blamed the matter on her assistant, the immediate reason for her resignation from chair of the human rights subcommittee was the failure to declare her trip paid by Qatar.
Arena was also involved in the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights as well as the Committee of Inquiry to investigate the use of Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware, which in its final report condemned Hungary and the then PiS-governed Poland. Among other member states, Hungarian public figures denounced the Committee for investigating a matter related to national security, a competence that was not conferred to the EU. In 2024 Arena did not run for re-election.
Besides her involvement in the Qatargate scandal, Arena was also tangled up in a conflict-of-interest matter. She has taken a prominent role in efforts in the European Parliament to harmonize cannabis laws in the European Union. Her legislative effort was questioned given that her son, Ugo Lemaire, was co-founder of the company BRC & Co that sells CBD products (a substance legal in Belgium but not in some other EU member states), which is a cannabis extract. In fact, the MEP mother and her businessman son’s organization even planned an event together in the European Parliament in 2019—Arena hosted an event on cannabis organized by ACTIVE, whose Benelux president was no one else than Lemaire. In 2021 Arena was also involved in co-founding a medical cannabis lobby group in the Parliament, aiming to standardize the legalization of CBD. She claimed she was a rather inactive member of the group; nevertheless, the standardization of the legalization of CBD would have benefited her son’s business.
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