The unauthorised publication this week of the results of an investigation by OLAF, the European Union’s anti-fraud office, into John Dalli has forced the European Commission to defend its decision to demand his resignation as European commissioner for health and consumer policy.
Malta Today, a newspaper, published on 28 April a leaked report of OLAF’s investigation into Dalli, Malta’s former European commissioner. The leaked version, which is missing two pages and 20 annexes, contains no direct evidence that Dalli was aware of an offer made by a Maltese businessman, Silvio Zammit, to influence – through his links with Dalli – imminent tobacco legislation, in exchange for €70 million.
OLAF submitted its report to José Manuel Barroso, the president of the Commission, in October. He then demanded that Dalli resign – the first-ever such resignation by a European commissioner. This week, following the leak, the Commission stressed that the decision to demand a resignation did not necessarily mean the Commission believed Dalli had committed a criminal act or violated the Commission’s code of conduct.
“The reasons behind this resignation were political,” said Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen, spokesperson for Barroso. “Mr Dalli’s situation as commissioner, after the OLAF investigation and findings, had become untenable.”
“This is to be separated from the ongoing criminal process and investigation in Malta,” she said, adding that Dalli’s resignation needed to be separated from any allegations of criminality.
However, Green MEP José Bové, who has sharply criticised OLAF, said the leaked report showed that the allegations, “as we had supposed, are not based on concrete facts”.
The leak comes at a difficult time for OLAF, which has suffered from a widening rift between its director-general, Giovanni Kessler, and its supervisory committee. Members of the committee have said they were not consulted properly about the Dalli investigation. In a report submitted to the European Parliament’s budgetary-control committee last week, the committee questioned Kessler’s handling of the investigation.
“By sidelining the surveillance committee of OLAF, José Barroso did not respect the rules of the institutions,” said Bové. “It is now high time that Barroso explains himself over these dysfunctions and that he takes responsibility for his actions.”
Centre-right German MEP Ingeborg Grässle, who has been calling for Kessler to resign, said the leaked report “confirms the impression of a biased and partly amateurish investigation by OLAF, coupled with violations of basic rights”.
“The part of the report now accessible is full of speculation, assertions and obviously uncritical repetition of witness accounts,” she said.
Ahrenkilde Hansen said the Commission could not make an assessment of whether the investigation was handled properly because OLAF and its director-general were independent of the Commission.
New information
The section of the report that was leaked suggests a more involved role for a 37-year-old lobbyist, Gayle Kimberley. It suggests Kimberley was involved in Zammit’s offer to Swedish Match, for whom she was working, to end the EU’s ban on smokeless tobacco product snus in exchange for €70m.
The two may have been accomplices, the report says. So far, only Zammit has been charged with a crime, while Kimberley has been treated as a witness. The OLAF report says that Zammit also made an offer to end the snus ban to the European Smokeless Tobacco Council (ESTOC).
The report suggests that after the cash-for-influence offer was made, before Swedish Match officially contacted the Commission, the company first talked to Michel Petite, a former head of the Commission’s legal service who now works for lobbying and law firm Clifford Chance, which counts tobacco giant Philip Morris among its clients. Petite then communicated the accusation to Catherine Day, secretary-general of the Commission.
Dalli has fallen ill since he resigned, which has delayed the investigation against him in Malta. He has filed a complaint with the European Court of Justice for unfair dismissal by the Commission.