‘Gaddafi should make his own decisions’ - EU Commissioner John Dalli

Updated at 2:39pm.

European Commissioner John Dalli has gone on record saying Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Gaddafi should “make his own decisions” when asked whether he should resign in the face of the uprising against his regime.

Dalli, a former minister, has had extensive business consultancies in the country. He told a business breakfast organised by the Malta Business Bureau this morning that he “didn’t think [he] had the right, or anyone else, to make a statement on whether he should step down.”

Answering questions on whether he feels that Gaddafi should resign, Dalli struck an apologetic tone: “I think Gaddafi should make his own decisions. He has the assessment of the people, as he has said on TV… I think Gaddafi has made the first attempt towards conciliation – but now he is feeling himself on uneasy ground and is looking for a way out.”

European Commission president Jose Barroso has on the other hand called for Colonel Gddafi's resignation.

Dalli said he was “in no way a defender of Gaddafi…  I abhor and condemn the violence completely.” He added that he “knew Libyans a bit… while European values are more geared towards forgiveness, the Arab culture is rather one that preaches vindication.”

The Commissioner described the conflict in Libya as a civil war, in which death was sowing the seeds for more strife and belligerence in the future. He said he expected a third wave of protest across the Middle East and Africa. “What will happen at the end of these waves I don’t know – and I don’t think anyone has any idea.”

He said the EU should emphasise the establishment of institutions that ensure governability inside Arab political structures. “From these institutions, everything will flow – human rights, democracy, free elections.”

He also shed doubts on the information being relayed from inside Libya by the satellite news networks and social media in the hands of protestors and opponents of the Gaddafi regime

“The US admitted that they have lost the race for information in Libya – this, and the way information is getting out, is problematic,” Dalli said.

He even claimed the media reportage on the issue was not completely reliable. Asked if he felt the media reports are ‘staged’ by foreigners, Dalli replied: “sometimes doubt creeps into one’s head when seeing people speaking perfect English and hoisted up by a group of people made to look like a crowd. I wonder if they might be shots ‘created’ for journalists.”

EUobserver.com reports that Dalli, 62, has built up close personal links with the Libyan regime over the past two decades. In 2004 he set up John Dalli & Associates, a consultancy firm which specialised in opening doors for Maltese businessmen in Libya and which had an office in Tripoli. He also worked as a director in the Azizia Glass Manufacturing Company (AGMC).

When he became a Maltese minister in 2008, he handed the family business to his daughters and he still owns a house in Tripoli. In his own online biography posted in 2008 he spoke about his work for the Libya Maltese Joint Commission in the 1987 to 1996 and 1998 to 2004 periods when Libya was under UN sanctions.

He said that "levels of economic activities between the two countries increased" despite the UN measures. He added that he had "established a strong network at the political and executive levels of that country."