MEPs: Barroso has to answer for damning OLAF investigation

Green MEPs Jose Bove and Bart Staes have accused European Commission president Jose Barroso of being politically "at fault" in having forced the resignation of John Dalli without verifying whether an OLAF investigation on bribery allegations forwarded by the tobacco industry, had been carried out using legal methods or not.

The two MEPs said the opinion of the OLAF supervisory committee leaked today had shown that OLAF's investigation on the allegations that prompted Dalli's resignation, was replete with shortcomings and irregularities.

"The question to Barroso is: if he had the OLAF report in hand, why didn't he check that all rules of procedure were followed before telling Dalli to move out? Had he allowed the OLAF report to be evaluated by the supervisory committee (SC) would he still have told Dalli that he had a problem in keeping him on?" Staes asked.

The Dutch MEP said it was now time for Barroso to come clean on the contents of the OLAF report and the new revelations from the supervisory committee's opinion.

"Barroso has to explain his behaviour. If Dalli is not found to be guilty, will he ask for compensation? And who will pay? Barroso, Giovanni Kessler? No, it will be the taxpayer who pays."

The MEPs also presented the press with a copy of the confidential Supervisory Committee opinion.

"The fact that Barroso decided to send the OLAF report to the Maltese authorities before the supervisory committee could analyse it was so that it could not be discussed," Bove told the Maltese press in Valletta today.

"The honour of Malta is at stake. Can you imagine had a French or German commissioner been 'taken out'? It would have been a mess. As MEPs, we cannot accept that Europe works in this way, and that's why we are arguing for transparency. This story has to come to an end."

Bove said that the only wrongdoing he could see in Dalli's actions was having met Swedish Match lobbyist Gayle Kimberley on 6 January 2012, without having publicly registered this meeting. "This is something which he has admitted to."

The two MEPs said the contents of the report by the Supervisory Committee were damning of the investigation carried out by OLAF.

"The task of the SC is to guarantee the fundamental rights of people interviewed by OLAF and to see that all procedures are followed according to EU rules and the case-law of the European Court of Justice," Bart Staes said.

But in the Dalli case, the OLAF investigative report was transferred to the Maltese authorities before the SC could see the report - according to EU law within five days of the conclusion of a case - and evaluate whether the investigation was carried out in respect of fundamental rights.

"This is a bomb. This document states that there were many failures, even illegalities, in the way the investigation was carried out by OLAF," Staes said.

"This is a major problem, and it also has a political element," Staes said. "European Commission president Jose Barroso did not ask OLAF if they had consulted the SC on this sensitive case, which deals with a Commissioner and a representative of a member state. It is about the integrity of Mr Dalli himself."

"He ruined the honour of Malta and he ruined the honour of Mr Dalli," Staes said.

Staes listed various shortcomings of the OLAF report outlined in the committee's opinion: OLAF did not carry out a thorough examination of the allegations before setting out on the inquiry; OLAF director-general Giovanni Kessler had a conflict of interest when he participated directly in the investigation; that there was limited evidence for OLAF to carry out a spot-check at Silvio Zammit's restaurant, on allegations of irregularities dealing with EU funds; and that the request for data on telephone calls was illegal.

John Dalli was asked to resign by Barroso on 16 October 2012, on the grounds of a covering letter from OLAF claiming he was aware of an attempt by his canvasser Silvio Zammit, to solicit a 60 million euro bribe from Swedish Match, in a bid to lift an EU ban on the sale of snus tobacco. Although no evidence exists that Dalli had instigated the bribe, Barroso demanding that he resign without showing him the contents of the OLAF report.

French MEP Jose Bove said Dalli's revision of the Tobacco Products Directive, which was intent on keeping the ban on snus, had been repeatedly postponed for consultation by EC secretary-general Catherine Day.

"The fact that Mr Dalli was kicked out so quickly, without any legal basis, shows the tobacco companies wanted to win more time by postponing the Tobacco Products Directive... it was a very strong directive against the tobacco companies," Bove said of Dalli's anti-smoking rules, which were instantly put on ice after his resignation.

"Dalli was refusing to open the market for snus, so it makes no sense that he wanted to accept a bribe for the opposite reason. The fact that Swedish Match's allegations were not verified by OLAF is incredible. OLAF accepted their version of events as fact," Bove said.