No case against Dalli ‘doesn't change’ Commission’s position

The European Commission has stood by its position taken on Dalligate insisting that the former Health Commissioner's position was no longer "politically tenable".

Addressing journalists, a senior Commission spokesperson said John Dalli's resignation was not "a judicial indictment" but "a result of the OLAF report, which made his position untenable".

Dalli has since insisted that his resignation had been "forced".

In a 20-minute press conference, journalists quizzed the Commission spokesperson on whether the Commission would be changing its position in view of the outcome of the police investigation. Maltese Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit has declared that the authorities had no incriminating evidence against Dalli and he will not be arraigned court.

The police investigation is ongoing.

"Our position remains the same. Dalli's position was no longer politically tenable," the spokesperson said, adding that the juridical and political aspects of the case were separate.

Asked whether the Commission believed the Maltese authorities were "pursuing the case properly", the spokesperson said the EC had no interest in "passing judgement" over the police investigation.

The spokesperson also denied that Dalli's resignation had "substantially delayed" the implementation of the Tobacco Directive.

"The Commission did its job and issued the proposals on the Tobacco Directive before the end of the year. As far as the Commission is concerned, things moved forward according to the plan and the legal process is ongoing," she said.

A leaked report on the OLAF investigation published by MaltaToday revealed that no direct evidence of the former commissioner's involvement in an alleged bribe was found.

Green MEP Bart Staes, vice-president of the budgetary control committee, said the OLAF report had shown "an unacceptable collusion" between Swedish Match, lobbyist and former head of the Council's legal services Michel Petite, and Catherine Day, secretary-general of the European Commission.

Asked how the Commission viewed Day's position, the spokesperson today said the secretary-general had carried her role "in exactly the normal way intended".

Dalli was accused by OLAF director Giovanni Kessler of having been aware, going by circumstantial evidence of telephone toll records, that Silvio Zammit, a canvasser, was using the commissioner's name to solicit a €60 million bribe from Swedish Match to influence the reversal of a trading ban.

In a dossier presented by the European People's Party chief rapporteur on OLAF, the chief of the EU anti-fraud agency Giovanni Kessler was accused by Inge Graessle MEP of having attempted to suborn witnesses in keeping up the pretence that Dalli was present at a meeting where a cash offer might have been - which never happened; and of using the secretary-general of the European Smokeless Tobacco Council to call Zammit in an attempt at substantiating their accusation.

One journalist asked the Commission spokesperson whether the EC was ready to help John Dalli clear his name and restore his public image. The spokesperson however reiterated that politically, his role was untenable "while respecting the presumption of innocence which remains valid today".

"Dalli's decision to step down was due to his intentions to clear his name," she said, adding that she had nothing to add to the Commission's statement that Dalli had stepped down, "in agreement with the President of the Commission", in front of witnesses.