OLAF investigative action ‘matter for courts not political institutions’ – Commission

The political and judicial dimension should be distinguished, the European Commission said today on the John Dalli case.

The Commission is facing pressure mounting from various quarters to force the resignation of the OLAF chief Giovanni Kessler in connection with how investigation into alleged bribery involving the former European health commissioner was conducted.

The EPP has now joined the European Greens in calling for Kessler's resignation. The groups are insisting that Kessler's position has become "politically and legally untenable".

But the European Commission is now insisting that it was "important to distinguish between the political and the judicial dimension of the Dalli case". "On 16 October 2012, Mr Dalli, in agreement with the President, decided to resign because his position as Commissioner had become politically untenable. The Commission has constantly stressed its attachment to the presumption of innocence which it has respected in all situations," it said.

Dalli is insisting that he was "forced to resign". In an extensive interview with MaltaToday, Dalli also accused Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso of knowing that the OLAF report was "based on a lie".

In the two pages which were missing from the leaked OLAF report made public by MaltaToday, it turned out that the report failed to point out that Dalli never knew lawyer Gayle Kimberley had approached him on behalf of Swedish Match. According to her own email to her employers of 6 January, Kimberley claimed she never told Dalli that she was "representing Swedish Match, just giving the objective position of suns producers and users".

The Commission is now insisting it will not "interfere in the conduct of OLAF's independent investigations" - citing article 12 of the OLAF Regulation and article 3 of the Commission decision establishing OLAF which provides for the complete independence of OLAF when it carries out investigations.

It considers that according to the law, OLAF must be independent of any political interference in order to be able to play its role.

"In order to respect OLAF's independence and in the light of on-going national judicial procedures, the Commission is under a duty to refrain from commenting on the legality of OLAF's investigative action. This is not a matter for political institutions but for the courts," the Commission said today.

In April, senior MEPs from the Budgetary Control Committee that is responsible for the monitoring of OLAF called for the resignation of the head of the EU's anti-fraud agency, Giovanni Kessler, after the annual report of the independent five-person supervisory committee questioned the legality of methods employed during the four-month investigation into bribery allegations against former EU commissioner John Dalli.

Green MEPs Bart Staes, vice-chair of the European Parliament's budgetary control committee, and José Bové, vice-chair of the EP's agriculture committee, said the OLAF supervisory committee's report had made Giovanni Kessler's position as OLAF director "untenable".

Refusing to involve itself in the 'legality' of the issue, the Commission said it was willing to strengthen further of the protection of financial interests of the Union and the defence rights of people concerned by OLAF investigations, notably by making new proposals to amend the Regulation which governs OLAF in the context of its proposal to create a European Public Prosecutors Office.

"The Commission is also willing to look beyond individual cases at the more systemic issues that have been raised by the Parliament and the OLAF supervisory committee, in cooperation with the other institutions, to further improve the legal and administrative arrangements regarding OLAF, going beyond the provisions of the current revision of the OLAF regulation."

The Commission added it had taken the initiative to bring OLAF and its Supervisory Committee together to agree on a roadmap of measures that can ensure a constructive and loyal working relationship between the two.