Former European Commissioner John Dalli was questioned by the International Herald Tribune about its revelations concerning him as he addressed an anti-tobacco seminar in Sweden yesterday.

Mr Dalli was invited to yesterday’s seminar a few months ago. It was organised by a Swedish anti-tobacco organisation called Tobaksfacta (Tobacco Facts), which asked him to talk about his experience of being removed from public office while working on the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive. The event was largely sympathetic but the welcome Mr Dalli got was mixed following the IHT story, which claimed he took a trip to the Bahamas in July to “move millions” of dollars from the tax haven.

In an opinion piece published yesterday in the daily, Stockholm-based Svenska Dagbladet, Swedish MEP Christofer Fjellner – a known advocate of the smokeless tobacco snus – described Mr Dalli’s presence at the event as scandalous.

Mr Dalli also faced questions on the Herald story by some of the people present at the event.

He stuck to his defence, dismissing the story as the latest attempt by the European Commission to tarnish his reputation.

He even questioned why Mr Fjellner was criticising him, pointing out that in his time as commissioner they used to have amicable discussions.

Before attending the event, Mr Dalli sent a letter to MEPs in which he offered to give a trusted individual the power of attorney to verify with all Bahamanian banks that he has no bank account in the tax haven.

“I state most emphatically that I never had any bank accounts in the Bahamas.

“I declared that I do not have any bank accounts in any other jurisdiction except in Brussels where I received payments from the Commission and in Malta where my pension payment is deposited,” he said.

He insisted that the discussions he had on that weekend in July revolved around a philanthropic project and that the meeting was held so he could gain an “understanding of its pertinence”.

In August he visited the Bahamas again and met the man who was quoted in the Herald story, Barry Connor. Discussions were very open, he said.

In front of everyone present and when potential funds and their management were mentioned, Mr Connor said he was the beneficiary of a trust in the Bahamas, which could be used for the project.

“The main discussion during that time was an innovative, cheap power generation that would be very useful to be used in the project,” he said.

However, Mr Dalli has so far not explained why he made such a taxing trip, which involved some 50 hours of travelling, to discuss a project that in his own words “was still in its infancy”.

Times of Malta reported yesterday that his trip was made just hours after Mr Dalli was allegedly alerted to a recording in which his former canvasser unsuccessfully requested a large bribe to help amend EU tobacco legislation.

Mr Dalli had previously said he did not discuss the investigation with 48-year-old restaurateur Silvio Zammit in this phone call.

However, police sources said he later admitted to the police that he had been warned about the probe in the call.

mmicallef@timesofmalta.com