Luxembourg, 07/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - Appearing before the General Court of the EU in Luxembourg on Monday 7 July, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, categorically denied the accusations of his former Maltese commissioner John Dalli, who claims that he was forced to step down from his position in October 2012, following a suspected corruption case linked to the tobacco industry (see EUROPE 11098). Dalli's accusations are a conspiracy theory “without any foundation and are even libellous”, Barroso told the Court.
What happened in Barroso's office on 16 October 2012? Did the Commission president force his commissioner's hand, forcing him to step down? Or did Dalli give up his post voluntarily? The five judges of the General Court mainly sought to find answers to these two questions, hearing from the plaintiff and a number of witnesses convened to appear for a single day, on Monday 7 July.
Dalli was the first to address the Court in this case (T-562/12), which has brought him to Luxembourg to seek annulment of the alleged verbal decision in which Barroso, he argues, required him to resign on 16 October 2012 and to obtain compensation of one euro for the damages suffered. During his statement and the ensuing questioning, Dalli appeared increasingly nervous. Although this affected the clarity of his words from time to time, his stance remained unchanged: “My feeling is that I was fired” without the opportunity to defend myself and with no option but to leave the European Commission, he said. He argues that the decision to get rid of him was taken in advance, and claims that he never signed his letter of resignation.
Barroso's side of the story is that Dalli agreed to resign in front of him, after being called to a meeting by Barroso on 16 October 2012 to notify him of the results of the OLAF report. I did “not formally ask him to resign”, he did that of his own bat, “in the least ambiguous way possible”, said the Commission president. He said that this was the only option, as the situation had become politically untenable for the Commission and, in his opinion, Dalli had lost all credibility when he confirmed that he had held informal meetings in Malta with representatives of the tobacco industry. This meant that he needed to leave the Commission as soon as possible, specifically on the very day of the meeting, in order to safeguard the institution's political credibility, as there was a risk that the contents of the OLAF report could leak out, Barroso explained.
The court also heard from Commission officials, including the head of Barroso's cabinet, Johannes Laitenberger, and the director general of the legal service, Luis Romero Requena (EUROPE will return to this). (JK)