Dalli says Libya comments were ‘taken out of context’

European Commissioner John Dalli yesterday said he regretted if his comments on Libya conveyed the “false impression” that he did not support the position on Libya taken by his boss, Commission President José Manuel Barroso.

In a statement yesterday, Mr Dalli said some of his remarks “were interpreted out of context” and wrongly considered to be in contradiction with the President’s statements.

Mr Dalli’s comments, made at a business breakfast held locally, made international headlines on Friday when he answered a question on whether the North African dictator should resign by saying that Col. Gaddafi “should make his own decisions”.

It struck a different tone to the categorical call by Mr Barroso for “him (Col Gaddafi) to go and give the country back to the people of Libya, allowing democratic forces to chart out a future course”.

The influential EU Observer said Mr Dalli had gone “way off message”.

Yesterday, Mr Dalli said: “I regret if any of the remarks I made on Friday have conveyed the false impression that I do not support the position communicated by President Barroso on the situation in Libya on Wednesday, March 2.

“Some of my remarks were interpreted out of context and considered to be in contradiction with the President’s statements. I am of course fully behind the position expressed by the President on behalf of the Commission”.

“The main point I was making regarding Mr Gaddafi in my personal remarks, strongly condemning any violence, was that Mr Gaddafi must follow the will of his people.”

“I also expressed the view that democratic governance is the fountain from which everything else will flow: Human rights, free elections, freedom of speech,” Mr Dalli added.

Beyond the resignation comment, however, Mr Dalli on Friday also questioned the authenticity of some of the coverage being given to the rebellion.

“Sometimes, seeing somebody who speaks perfect English with some 30 people behind him to seem like a crowd... doubts creep into my mind as to whether it is staged for journalists and cameras,” he said.

Mr Dalli also described as “pitiful” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s admission that she had to rely on media reports to get information on what was happening in Libya. His statement yesterday did not deal with that comment.The commissioner has had close business ties with Libya and still owns a house in Tripoli. When he returned to Cabinet in 2008 he relinquished his share in a consultancy firm, John Dalli and Associates, which he had set up in 2004 to open doors to Libyan business for foreign companies.