Brussels, 17/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - European Health and Consumer Affairs Commissioner John Dalli of Malta resigned on Tuesday 16 October 2012 with immediate effect, following his investigation by the EU anti-frand office OLAF, announced the European Commission the same day (see EUROPE 10711).
John Dalli is alleged to be involved in attempted extorsion and corruption, explained OLAF Director General Giovanni Kessler on Wednesday 17 October at a press conference.
Subject to intense lobbying, the former commissioner dealt with highly sensitive issues like smoking rules, GMOs, medicines certification and food safety, accusations state. He denies all the allegations, saying he had been forced out and false charges had been mounted against him in order to get rid of him, claims which are highly embarrassing to the Commission. Commission spokesperson Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen says Dallie had decided to resign and had informed the Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, about this orally.
Whether voluntary or not, the resignation removes the danger for Barroso of a collective resignation of the Commission, like the collective resignation of the Commission under Jacques Santer of Luxembourg on 15 March 1999. The current case arises in connection with an investigation by OLAF following a complaint by a Swedish cigarette manufacturer, Swedish Match.
The OLAF director general said John Dalli knew that somebody close to him, a Maltese industrialist, was demanding money from a company for using his influence with the commissioner to try and bring about changes to EU legislation. Kessler said that substantial sums of money were requested of Swedish Match, but that John Dalli had not done anything to prevent this or dissociate himself from the company, or for that matter make a report on what he knew.
The investigation will not be made public by OLAF, said Kessler, refusing to identify the person in Dalli's circle in question.
Many questions remained unanswered by Barroso's spokesperson and the OLAF director general, the latter admitting that there was no proof that Dalli had been the initiator or grey matter behind the request for money and that no money had been paid out.
The person in question claimed he might be able to have the ban on the sale of chewable snuff lifted in the EU, which is currently only allowed to be sold in Sweden and Norway. The investigation has shown, Kessler admitted, that John Dalli had not been involved in the process of altering anti-smoking legislation and had done nothing wrong.
There is a distinct lack of clarity about what exactly Dalli is accused of and several complaints have been made that his departure will be helpful to the cigarette industry. Monika Kosinska, Director of the European Public Health Alliance, said she hoped the resignation would not lead to large tobacco companies being able to block tighter anti-smoking legislation (see related article). The Commission spokesperson admitted that the changes underway to prepare the proposal are suspended until a new health commissioner has been appointed. UNITAB, a tobacco industry lobby, urged the Commission to drop the draft legislation drawn up by Dalli.
John Dalli confirmed that he had resigned, but said he would be defending himself to prove that the claims by OLAF were false. He said he had resigned in order to have his hands free to prove that the allegations against him were false and that this gave him a feeling of déjà vu, referring to the resignation of the Maltese government in 2004 following allegations later proved to be unfounded.
Maros Sefcovic, EU Administration Commissioner, will be acting as health commissioner until a new Commissioner is found by Malta to replace John Dalli.
There is no precedent to Dalli's decision to resign following the investigation against him by OLAF. It will prevent the humiliation of a collective resignation of the European Commission, such as occurred under Luxemburger Jacques Santer on 15 March 1999. The Santer Commission had to resign following investigations into nepotism and irregularities by French Commissioner Edith Cresson in the running of an EU professional training programme. Cresson's refusal to resign led to the fall of the entire Commission under its president Jacques Santer. The European Parlliament has the power to force the entire Commission to step down, but has no such powers against individual commissioners.
MEPs also have the right to veto the investiture of the Commission and can in this way prevent the appointment of individual commissioners, forcing countries to come up with different candidates, as was done with Italy's Rocco Buttiglione and Bulgaria's Rumiana Jeleva. (LC/transl.fl)