EUobserver takes a deep dive into the workings and new chairs of every single European Parliament committee for the new 2024-2029 session, in a series of articles first published in our print magazine of October 2024
Mounir Satouri, a Moroccan-born MEP from France, chairs the European Parliament's sub-committee on human rights.
The 49-year-old is a member of the Greens and has been affiliated with the committee as a substitute since mid-2019.
Satouri did not reply to questions on his committee of 29 MEPs, its challenges and what he hopes it will achieve over the next five years.
But over the summer, a statement from the European Parliament provided some insight.
"Our mission is to support international justice and human rights defenders around the world," he said.
"We will be determined in monitoring respect for human rights in the EU's external policies, from migration to trade."
Among their first initiatives under Satouri’s watch was to speak out in defence of Afghan women, whose fate has only worsened since the shock Taliban takeover in August 2021.
But the prospect of monitoring human rights, in a Europe that is turning a blind eye to abuses, is also a daunting task.
Some of the biggest tragedies, including the drowning deaths of an estimated 650 people in a shipwreck off the coast of Pylos, Greece in June 2023, remain unaccounted for.
The EU has also been signing cash-for-migrant deals with democratically-dubious states, such as Tunisia, Egypt and Mauritania, in a wider bid to stop people from taking boats towards Europe.
Last year, Satouri condemned the EU agreement with Tunisia. He again spoke out in March and accused the EU of bankrolling dictators across the region.
The condemnation came after the European Commission pumped some €150m into Tunisia, sidelining the European Parliament in the process.
Part of those deals involve trade and he has since pressed the EU to suspend its association agreement with Israel, given the atrocities playing out in the Gaza Strip and the attacks on Lebanon.
But trade is also a factor with Satouri's native Morocco, which has used migration to squeeze concessions from Spain and the EU at the expense of fundamental rights.
The north African country remains steadfast in claiming the Western Sahara as its own, since its illegal annexation in 1975.
The issue has seen the European Court of Justice either toss out the deals or impose limitations.
But France has since sided with Morocco to retain control over the Western Sahara after similar shifts from Spain and the US, amid widespread lobbying from Rabat.
Whatever the issue, Satouri's committee remains mired in the shadow of the Qatargate lobbying scandal of 2022.
The committee was at the centre of the affair. Its former chair, Belgian socialist Maria Arena, resigned from the post despite proclaiming her innocence.
The European Parliament has since attempted to shake off the scandal in the hopes of regaining lost credibility.
The DROI coordinators are: Isabel Wiseler-Lima (EPP, Luxembourg), Francisco Assis (S&D, Portugal), Matthieu Valet (PfE, France), Arkadiusz Mularczyk (ECR, Poland), Bernard Guetta (Renew, France), Catarina Vieira (Greens, Netherlands), and Isabel Serra Sánchez (Left, France).
Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.
Nikolaj joined EUobserver in 2012 and covers home affairs. He is originally from Denmark, but spent much of his life in France and in Belgium. He was awarded the King Baudouin Foundation grant for investigative journalism in 2010.