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Former EU commissioner John Dalli asks court to overturn resignation
Dalli asks EU General Court to annul “termination of office” claiming he could not defend himself against allegations.
18 February 2013, 12:00am
Matthew Vella
Matthew Vella
2 min read
Former EU Commissioner John Dalli has asked an EU court to revoke his resignation.
Former European commissioner John Dalli, who resigned on 16 October after being accused of having been aware of a bribery attempt, has asked an EU court to overturn his resignation in the wake of a fraud investigation.
Dalli is asking the EU's General Court to annul the "termination of office", according to a court filing published this week. The action wasn't a valid resignation and didn't allow him to defend himself against allegations that he was aware of attempts by Maltese entrepreneur Silvio Zammit to sell access to him in a possible attempt to influence the bloc's tobacco policy, according to the filing.
Dalli said last year that his resignation was "explicitly demanded" by European Commission President Jose Barroso and that he was refused access to a report by the EU's anti-fraud office, OLAF.
In his application, Dalli asks the Court to annual the oral decision of 16 October; orer the Commissino to pay compensation of both the moral and material prejudice; and bear all legal costs.
Dalli claims the Commission violated articles 245 and 247 of the Treaty of the European Union, giving him no valid resignation motive because it was an illegal procedure, and that he was unable to make any appraisal and assessment of the facts to be held against him.
He also alleged a violation of the principle of proportionality, because Dalli was unable to know which are the objectives legitimately pursued by the challenged decision and if any possible other measure less punitive has been.
Barroso had said that it was "politically untenable" for Dalli to remain in his post after the report uncovered circumstantial evidence that he knew of the effort to sell access to him, according to an EU spokesman's statement in October 2012.
His resignation was the first by an EU commissioner over corruption allegations since the entire commission resigned in 1999 after several members were accused of financial wrongdoing.
John Dalli versus European Commission by maltatoday
Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...
Luke Camilleri •
No mention at all of Gonzi in the whole article!
Wasn't Gonzi's judgement in Dalli's case a bit hurried with John Dalli not even given the benefit of the doubt as AUST Gatt is being given?
What would Gonzi have done if it was John Dalli and not AYST ,that kept a Swiss Bank Account hidden and not declared for 5 years?????????
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I am glad John Dalli has lodged this case in front of the European Court. I strongly suspect that his forced resignation by Barroso was intimately linked to the fact that Dalli was becoming a thorn in the PN side and frame ups have always been the essential tool of certain elements in the PN.
