Brussels, 14/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Court of Justice has rejected the appeal by the former Maltese Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, John Dalli, thus confirming that he was not forced to resign on 16 October 2012 by the then president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso.
In a ruling published on Thursday 14 April (Case C-394/15 P), the Court of Justice says that the European General Court, in its ruling of 12 May 2015 (see EUROPE 11313), had not committed any error by ruling that no formal request for Dalli's resignation had been made by Barroso. The Court says that the simple mention by Barroso of using a power entrusted to him as president of the Commission cannot be equated with actual use of that power. As for whether Dalli had resigned voluntarily, as the General Court said, the Court of Justice 'was not able to check this purely factual element of an appeal.
Just as the former Commissioner had requested of the General Court, he also requested that the Court of Justice recognise that Barroso had removed him from his job and he also requested that the Commission pay him a symbolic euro for moral damages and over €1.9 million in material damages.
Rejecting the appeal, the Court has marked the definitive end to the Dalli case at the European Court of Justice. The appeal was also sent to the federal Belgian court, which recently obtained the lifting of the diplomatic immunity of the director general of the European anti-fraud office (OLAF), Giovanni Kessler (see EUROPE 11510). A report about an OLAF investigation played a key role in the departure of John Dalli from his post as European Commissioner by leaving hanging over him the accusation of trafficking influence in his work on the tobacco directive. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)