In a sharply worded article published on 21 November 2025, Marietje Mei, a Member of the European Parliament from the GroenLinks\u2013PvdA party, delivered a fierce critique of the European Union, arguing that it now behaves like \u201cinfluencers vacationing in Dubai\u201d\u2014drawn to Emirati extravagance while turning a blind eye to horrific violations and war crimes in Sudan.
\nMei noted that what social-media influencers do\u2014posting luxurious photos tagged as ads or gifts\u2014essentially mirrors a systematic image-polishing campaign orchestrated by the UAE, which manufactures a fa\u00e7ade of glamour that conceals a heavy record of repression, exploitation, and the fueling of conflict.
\nAccording to the article, the EU is itself \u201caccepting the gift,\u201d benefiting from oil, gas, and critical mineral deals routed through the Gulf, even though a significant portion of these resources\u2014especially gold\u2014reach Europe after being looted from Sudanese mines by the Rapid Support Forces, which are accused of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. In doing so, Mei argues, the EU becomes a participant in a \u201cblood-stained economy.\u201d
\nMei added that the UAE is the largest supplier of weapons to the RSF, despite extensive documentation by international organizations of mass killings, systematic rape, and deliberate starvation of civilians in Darfur and other regions. Yet\u2014even with satellite imagery, UN reports, and millions of displaced people\u2014the European Commission continues its secret trade negotiations with Abu Dhabi without any conditions, ethical clauses, or even a single mention of Sudan on the agenda.
\nShe further stated that the occasional expressions of concern voiced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen remain \u201cempty\u201d as long as the EU continues unregulated economic cooperation with a state that, according to international reports, is arming a militia committing atrocities.
\nMei concluded with a clear call to immediately halt negotiations with the UAE and to impose strict EU requirements for verifying the origin of minerals and banning the import of any resource whose source cannot be authenticated. She argued that the continuation of the current situation \u201cmakes the Union complicit and strengthens regimes that hand out gold with one hand and spill blood with the other.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a sharply worded article published on 21 November 2025, Marietje Mei, a Member of the European Parliament from the GroenLinks\u2013PvdA party, delivered a fierce critique of the European Union, arguing that it now behaves like \u201cinfluencers vacationing in Dubai\u201d\u2014drawn to Emirati extravagance while turning a blind eye to horrific violations and war crimes in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":57628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57629,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57627\/revisions\/57629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}