Maltese police will not pursue Dalli over EU lobbying

Giovanni Kessler, head of EU’s anti-fraud office, comes under renewed attack.

John Dalli, who last year had to resign as Malta’s European commissioner because of a lobbying scandal, is most unlikely to face criminal charges in Malta, the country’s police commissioner has announced.

 

The announcement was immediately seized upon by critics of Giovanni Kessler, the head of the European Union’s anti-fraud office, OLAF. It was a report by OLAF, on an investigation in which Kessler was personally involved, that prompted José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, to demand Dalli’s resignation last October.

Kessler’s critics said the Maltese police commissioner’s intention not to pursue criminal charges showed the thinness of OLAF’s case against Dalli.
In an interview with a Maltese television station, Peter Paul Zammit, who became police commissioner in April, said that investigations were continuing into the allegations against Dalli. But, having discussed the case with the attorney general, he did not feel there was, at the moment, sufficient evidence for a criminal case against Dalli.

Dalli issued a statement saying that Zammit’s statement was the “closure of a malevolent and defamatory case in my regard, which has damaged Malta’s image worldwide”.

Dalli resigned after allegations surfaced that a lobbyist who was offering his services to tobacco companies wanting to shape forthcoming EU legislation on tobacco, had claimed connections with the commissioner.

José Bové, a French Green member of the European Parliament, and Bart Staes, a Belgian Green MEP, who have been very critical of Kesser, said his position was now untenable and he should be dismissed.

Ingeborg Grässle, a German centre-right MEP, said the police commissioner’s statement was “a declaration of bankruptcy on the work of OLAF director-general Giovanni Kessler who personally led the investigation of Dalli”. She said it showed up “the unprofessional work of the OLAF management which did not respect their own standards of investigation and according to the OLAF supervisory committee breached EU law”.

At a hearing before the Parliament’s budgetary control committee ten days ago, Kessler said it would be for the courts to decide on the legality of OLAF’s methods.

Grässle said Kessler would now have to give a detailed account to the Parliament’s committee. He is due to appear before the committee members on 18 June.

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