[WATCH] Barroso tells Dalli resignation is effective

European Commission president Josè Barroso has told John Dalli in a letter that there are "no further questions" arising about the effectiveness of his resignation from health and consumer policy commissioner, which Dalli is contesting because there was no written request for resignation.

"I am unable to accept the statements and claims made in your letter," Barroso told Dalli referring to a letter he penned on Sunday 21 October.

"During our meeting on 16 October 2012, you have yourself unambiguously declared your immediate resignation, before the Director General of the Legal Service and the Head of my Private Office. Under the Treaty, no written form is required for a declaration of resignation, and it is irrevocable," Barroso said of Dalli's resignation at the hands of an investigation by the EU's anti-fraud office OLAF that claimed he aware of a middleman soliciting a bribe in a bid to change tobacco laws.

Barroso, whom Dalli lamented that he was less than supportive when he was verbally asked to step down from commissioner, also told the Maltese commissioner that his "various complaints and accusations of illegal or incorrect conduct vis-à-vis you [...] are equally incomprehensible. In this respect, I would remind you that you have had in good time several opportunities to react to the issues raised with regard to the OLAF investigation."

Barroso also told Dalli that the Tobacco Products Directive review he was spearheading would proceed, telling the former commissioner that he was obliged to "behave with integrity", referring to Dalli's "insinuations" in relation to the process of preparation of the revised directive on tobacco.

In a midday briefing, Barroso's spokesperson said Dalli had not submitted any resignation letter, emphasising that his oral resignation was made before two witnesses and was a "legal formalisation" of his resignation. "This interpretation is shared by Malta as Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has designated a candidate for the post of commissioner."

Eralier in the week, the spokesperson said there was no formal requirement for European Commission president José Barroso to provide John Dalli with a written request for resignation, saying the EC had taken note of John Dalli's letter to Barroso but had no comment to make on his claims.

"He is expressing his point of view. All we can do is take note. There is no obligation to write a formal letter of resignation. This resignation took place after discussion between Commissioner Dalli and the president of the Commission. The president offerred him the opportunity of resigning after reading him the conclusions of the OLAF report. From a political point of view, it was untenable for the Commissioner to stay in his post with a sensitive portfolio dealing with sensitive matters... there were two witnesses at the point where the former commissioner resigned and was accepted by the President. And it had an immediate effect, with the Maltese authorities wanting to appoint a new commissioner. As far as we are concerned, the resignation matter of John Dalli is behind us, and it occurred last Tuesday."

John Dalli has not yet submitted a formal letter of resignation to the European Commission, because he is claiming that EC president Jose Manuel Barroso has not yet given him the formal reasons for his resignation under Article 17.6 of the Treaty of the European Union.

In a letter to Barroso sent Sunday 21 October, Dalli told the EC president that although he had acquiesced to Barroso's verbal request for him to resign, he had not yet provided him with an official request invoking his prerogatives to make him resign.

"Without such a request, there is no resignation," Dalli has told Barroso, citing the TEU's Article 17.6 which lays down that a member of the Commission shall resign if the President so requests.

Dalli is however saying that although he offered his resignation verbally when asked by Barroso, he did not sign a resignation letter which the Brussels political newspaper New Europe says was drafted for him by the Commission's legal services' director-general Luis Romero Requena and Barroso's chief of cabinet Johannes Laitenberger.

Dalli is insisting with Barroso that his official request is necessary, especially since his Commission spokesperson told the press the day after the resignation that it was Dalli who had offered his resignation. "In our meeting of October 16, 2012 you explicitly demanded (verbally) for my resignation. Considering article 17.6 of the TEU... I replied (also verbally) that I would resign. I did not resign you my resignation in writing as requested by yourself as you did not send me, so far, an official request, invoking your prerogatives as provided by the Treaty.

"Such official request is deemed necessary after the official statement of your spokesperson (repeated several times) in the midday briefing of October 17, 2012, and widely reported in the international media claiming that, 'I offered my resignation' as well as in your press release of the day before.

"This is not correct as 'I did not offer my resignation' but 'you demanded for it'."

Dalli stepped down as commissioner on 16 October after he was read the covering letter from an investigation by the EU's anti-fraud office OLAF, claiming there was circumstantial evidence that he was aware of an attempt by a Sliema restaurateur, Silvio Zammit, to solicit a bribe from snus producers Swedish Match, ostensibly to reverse an EU-wide ban on snuff, which can only be sold in Sweden. Dalli has denied being aware of Zammit's advances to the company.

In the resignation letter drafted by the Commission, Dalli would have stepped down "in the interest of defending [his] reputation and of averting any damage to the EU and the Commission" and to avail himself of the necessary time to contest the findings of the OLAF investigation, which would otherwise take away all the energy necessary for him to take care of the health and consumer policy portfolio.