OLAF director insists Dalli knew of ‘lobbying’ but did not do anything about it

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Sliema restaurateur and former deputy mayor Silvio Zammit organised two meetings between the former European Commissioner for health John Dalli and members of the European Smokeless Tobacco Council (ESTOC) - whose members include representatives of Swedish Match, the Swedish snuff tobacco company that reported claims of trading in influence against Dalli to OLAF, the EU's anti-fraud watchdog.

It is unclear as to what type of meetings these were, given that Dalli was conducting a review of the Tobacco Products Directive to clamp down on attractive packaging of tobacco products.

But OLAF director Giovanni Kessler was adamant that although there was "no conclusive evidence of direct participation of John Dalli as an instigator or mastermind of the operation of requesting money for changing a Commission decisio", nevertheless there were "a number of unambiguous circumstantial pieces of evidence gathered in the course of the investigation indicating that he was indeed aware of the machination of requests of the Maltese entrepreneur and of the fact that this person was using his name of commissioner, and the position, to gain financial advantage."

A midday briefing held in Brussels today revealed that John Dalli only communicated his resignation verbally to EC president Jose Barroso, and that no resignation letter has been presented by Dalli. Earlier on today, Dalli said that Barroso demanded his resignation.

Additionally, while questions centred around whether Dalli had been namedropped by a man posing to be a lobbyist who attempted to extract financial benefit from the tobacco industry, OLAF director Giovanni Kessler told the press that the commissioner was aware of Silvio Zammit's lobbying attempts with ESTOC or Swedish Match.

"At no stage did Dalli take any action to disassociate himself from the facts or circumstances that he was aware of," Kessler said.

"I don't know if this is fraud... our conclusion is that he was aware of these facts. If I, as an example, knew of somebody who was telling people that he knows me and that I can fix some investigation, and I don't know anything about it, that would be trading in influence, and it's a crime."

ESTOC or Swedish Match, which were in contact with Silvio Zammit as recently as March 2012 as an email published by MaltaToday shows, appear to have reported the case to the Commission in May 2012. It is known that Swedish Match reported the case to the EC, perhaps while ESTOC was still in communication with Zammit. Additionally ESTOC chairman Patrik Hildingsson is Swedish Match vice-president.

The Commission appears to have already been investigating the complaint prior to OLAF's investigation, but the March 2012 email suggests a certain degree of familiarity between ESTOC secretary-general Inge Delfosse and Silvio Zammit.

Kessler said that Zammit - described as a former canvasser of John Dalli - had asked for a "rather substantial sum". At no point did Kessler divulge his name during his press conference.

Earlier on in the briefing, a European Commission spokesperson would not add more to its original statement when asked by journalists whether any European commissioner should resign when lobbyists approach potential clients pretending to know commissioners.

It also emerged that Dalli has not yet presented Barroso with an official resignation letter - Dalli himself has told New Europe that he was asked to resign by Barroso when the OLAF report was revealed not to have found anything implicating him directly.

"Dalli decided to resign and he communicated this to Barroso," the EC spokesperson said, but later added that he had only resigned orally. "No resignation letter is formally required."

Journalists also queried whether a similar meeting between members of the European steel industry and Commissioner Günther Oettinger that was brokered by his associate, should have warranted that the commissioner inform the EC. The question went unanswered by the EC spokesperson.

The spokesperson said that the resignation would not affect the work of the healthcare and consumer affairs portfolio, but that the Tobacco Products Directive review would be carried out by the next commissioner.

The spokesperson said it was not certain whether the next Maltese commissioner which the government has to appoint, will be health commissioner.