Marie Arena (born 17 December 1966) is a Belgian politician who was a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

(MEP) from 2014 to 2024. She was a member of the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

(PS), part of the

Party of European Socialists The Party of European Socialists (PES) is a Social democracy, social democratic European political party. The PES comprises national-level political parties from all the European Economic Area, European economic area states (EEA) plus the Unit ...

(PES).

Career in national politics

From 2000 to 2009, Arena held several ministerial functions in various regional and federal governments. From 2000 to 2003, she was Walloon Minister of Employment and Training. She then was Federal Minister of the Civil Service, Social Integration, Cities and Equal Opportunities in the

Verhofstadt II Government The Verhofstadt II Government was the Belgian Federal Government, federal government of Belgium from 12 July 2003 to 21 December 2007. It was the second government headed by Prime Minister of Belgium, Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt (Flemish Libe ...

from 12 July 2003 to 20 July 2004. She was the Minister-President of the

French Community of Belgium In Belgium, the French Community (, , CFB) refers to one of the three constituent constitutional linguistic communities. Since 2011, the French Community has used the name Wallonia-Brussels Federation (, , FWB), which is controversial because ...

from July 2004 until March 2008. Until 17 July 2009, she was also Federal Minister for Social Integration, Pensions and Large Cities in the

Leterme I Government The Leterme I Government was the federal government of Belgium from 20 March 2008 to 22 December 2008. It took office when the Flemish Christian democrat Yves Leterme ( CD&V) was sworn in as Prime Minister. It followed the Belgian general elec ...

, which took office on 20 March 2008.

Member of the European Parliament

Arena was elected as an MEP in the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 22 and 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties field ...

. During her first term, she served on the

Committee on International Trade The Committee on International Trade (INTA) is a committee of the European Parliament. Its current chair, elected on 10 July 2019, is Bernd Lange.Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality The Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) is a committee of the European Parliament. Membership Chair 9th Term Vice Chairs * Eugenia Rodríguez Palop * Sylwia Spurek * Elissavet Vozemberg-Vrionidi * Radka Maxova 7th Term ...

(FEMM), the delegation to the

ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly The ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly was created to bring together the elected representatives of the European Union (the Members of the European Parliament) and the elected representatives of the African, Caribbean and Pacific states ("ACP ...

, and the delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean. Since the

2019 European Parliament election The 2019 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 23 and 26 May 2019. It was the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) we ...

, she has been a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. In 2020, she also joined the Special Committee on Beating Cancer. From 2019 to 2023, Arena chaired the

Subcommittee on Human Rights The Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI, after the French name ''Sous-commission des droits de l'homme du Parlement européen'') is a subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament. It is responsible for issues of human ...

. In this capacity, she was part of the Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group (DEG), which oversees the Parliament's election observation missions. In addition to her committee assignments, Arena was a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Cancer, the European Parliament Intergroup on Children's Rights, the

European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights The European Parliament Intergroup on LGBTI Rights is an intergroup of the European Parliament's legislators which focuses on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons both inside and outside the European Uni ...

, and the Responsible Business Conduct Working Group. She did not stand for re-election in the

2024 European Parliament election The 2024 European Parliament election was held in the European Union (EU) between 6 and 9 June 2024. It was the tenth Elections to the European Parliament, parliamentary election since the 1979 European Parliament election, first direct electio ...

Qatargate

Amid the

Qatar corruption scandal at the European Parliament Qatargate is an ongoing political scandal, involving allegations that European Parliament officials, lobbyists and their families have been influenced by the governments of Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania, engaging in corruption, money launder ...

, Arena's offices were searched in December 2022. She resigned her post as chair of the subcommittee on human rights on 11 January 2023, following allegations that she failed to declare a trip in May 2022 which had been paid for by the Qatari government. In July 2023, Belgian police raided Arena's house in Brussels. In January 2025, she confirmed to media that she had been charged with belonging to a criminal organization in connection with the Qatargate case.

Honours

*: Grand Officer of the

Order of Leopold Order of Leopold may refer to: * Order of Leopold (Austria), founded in 1808 by emperor Francis I of Austria and discontinued in 1918 * Order of Leopold (Belgium), founded in 1832 by king Leopold I of Belgium * Order of Leopold II, founded in Congo ...

, 2010).Belgian Senate, Biography
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References

External links