Brussels, 24/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 24 October, during a press conference organised by the International Press Association, former Commissioner for health, John Dalli, exclaimed loud and clear that he would fight to clear the name of his family.
“I want the vindication of my name. It will damage my whole name and my family. It is not a question of getting my job back…I have never been offered any money by anyone to alter any incoming legislation, either directly or indirectly.” According to the former Commissioner, he could at least have been told what explains the action taken by Commission President José Manuel Barroso, when he asked him to resign but “up to now I still don't know what the motivation is”. Together with his lawyers, Dalli will put together a dossier for lodging a complaint in the Maltese or Belgian courts or at the European Court of Human Rights. This is the second case of this kind that he has had to confront. A similar episode previously took place, which he won, when he was his country's foreign minister.
Last week, the European Antifraud Office (OLAF) submitted a report to Barroso according to which Dalli is guilty of trafficking influence in an affair involving a Swedish snuff producer, Swedish Match, and a Maltese entrepreneur, Mr Zammit (see EUROPE 10711). Dalli is said to have had amicable relations with Zammit, who and acted as an intermediary for significant remuneration (€60 million was mentioned) between the former Commissioner and the Swedish company, in an effort to amend European legislation prohibiting the distribution of snuff in the EU. Dalli is said to have known about these discussions but did not provide any warning. Swedish Match, however, complained.
On several occasions Dalli had denied these allegations. He has not had access to the OLAF report. According to information he has provided, the OLAF monitoring body had still not formally approved this report on Monday, 22 October. He said that certain elements have even been rejected in it. The Commission has sent the OLAF report to the appropriate Maltese legal service to look at the case.
Dalli admitted that on one occasion in Malta in January this year he had been in the presence of Zammit, when a Maltese lawyer had asked him what the Commission position was on snuff. He repeatedly denied that he knew that this lawyer was working for Swedish Match. Contrary to what OLAF is asserting, he says that he absolutely did not know who she was and that “she did not come to me as a lobbyist. She was only asking questions. She was not trying to persuade me”. Dalli also denied having participated in two other meetings with this lawyer, said to have taken place in February.
Asked why he had agreed to resign instead of making Barroso fire him, the former Commissioner had been urged to decide although he had asked for time to consider what possibilities there were for seeking advice. He said that in the end, he did not have the choice and the result would have been the same. He said that he had not offered his resignation; they had obliged him to resign. In an open letter, Barroso refutes any allegation of there being any pressure on him and says that Dalli had on several occasions the possibility of responding to the accusations levelled against him.
Dalli also said it was possible that there were political reasons that sought to eliminate him from the Maltese government with which, according to his own admission, he has had a rather tenuous relationship. He also said that it was perhaps because the tobacco industry, of which he had mentioned a massive attack being launched, sought to target European Commissioners. As for the “Tobacco” directive, he said that he hoped that the future Maltese Commissioner would stay on the same course as he had pursued. On Wednesday, the Commission called for legislation to be amended to guarantee a total ban on snuff. (MB/trans/fl)