Over 3,900 signatures in petition to Barroso demanding transparency on Dalligate

Over 3,900 signatures were collected in an online petition to the European Commission calling for stronger transparency and ethics rules around lobbying, and an improved code of conduct for Commissioners.

The petition calls on European Commission president José Manuel Barroso to "reveal what happened in the lobbying scandal that led to the resignation of Commissioner John Dalli."

Dalli resigned on 16 October 2012, after an investigation by the EU's anti-fraud unit OLAF claimed the former commissioner was aware of a €60 million bribe being solicited from Swedish Match, to lift an EU trading ban on snuff tobacco 'snus'.

"The Commission must end its secrecy and release the full facts about Dalligate. The scandal shows that the current rules around lobbying are too weak. It is too easy for unregistered lobbyists to meet with top officials and influence EU decision-making. Please act now to introduce stronger transparency and ethics rules around lobbying, including an improved code of conduct for Commissioners," the petition reads.

The petition was organised the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU), a coalition of about 200 civil society groups, trade unions, academics and public affairs firms concerned with the influence exerted by corporate lobbyists on the political agenda in Europe.

"With new tobacco laws in the pipeline, there are fears that Dalli may have been caught in a tobacco industry set-up designed to delay changes the industry don't want," Alter-EU said of the circumstances that led to Dalli's resignation.

"The trouble is that nobody knows what really went on, because the European Commission is refusing to make the facts public. They won't admit that the scandal happened because current EU rules on contacts with lobbyists are too weak."

OLAF's investigation report has so far been kept under wraps by the European Commission. Silvio Zammit, of Sliema, was charged in the Maltese courts of bribery for having asked €60 million from Swedish Match to reverse the ban on snus.