Brussels, 22/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - The President of the General Court of the EU rejected the request made by the Director General of OLAF (EU anti-fraud office), Giovanni Kessler, to suspend the lifting of his diplomatic immunity, which was decided upon by the European Commission in March (EUROPE 11510).
In an order published on Friday 22 July (case T-251/16), the President of the General Court rejected the application for interim measures brought by Kessler, arguing that it was unfounded. The Belgian courts called for his immunity to be lifted in a case regarding alleged illegal telephone tapping of the former European Commissioner for Health, John Dalli, which played a part in his eventful departure from the Commission (EUROPE 11532).
The President of the General Court took the view that it was unlikely that the lifting of his immunity would seriously affect the correct functioning of OLAF or Kessler's ability to carry out his duties. Furthermore, Kessler had failed to demonstrate that the telephone tapping technique was regularly used in OLAF's investigations. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)