John Dalli breached the European Commission’s code of ethics by carrying out private work while serving as a commissioner, according to Opposition leader Simon Busuttil.
The European Commission’s code precludes you from doing any other work, whether paid or unpaid
“I cannot understand how John Dalli, when he was still European commissioner, did another job – which he describes as consultancy to a charity – even if on a voluntary basis.
“Everyone knows that the European Commission’s code of ethics precludes you from doing any other work, whether paid or unpaid,” said Dr Busuttil in an interview on party station Radio 101 yesterday.
“Regarding Mr Dalli’s trips to the Bahamas, the Prime Minister now has a lot to answer for,” he added, pointing out that Mr Dalli was appointed as the Government’s consultant on Mater Dei Hospital reform.
“I want the Prime Minister to say whether he thinks it is still acceptable for (Mr Dalli) to be a consultant,” Dr Busuttil said.
The Prime Minister had fallen into a “trap” of his own making since he had allowed one of his own parliamentary secretaries to continue to engage in private work in breach of Malta’s ministerial code of ethics.
“Now, Joseph Muscat must see whether it is acceptable for Mr Dalli to have done consultancy work without informing European Commission president José Manuel Barroso.”
Dr Busuttil denied that the Nationalist Party had been silent on Dalligate, saying that the European People’s Party was the political grouping that “helped” Mr Dalli most by criticising aspects of the investigation by the EU anti-fraud agency OLAF, which had forced his resignation.
His comments come a day after Mr Dalli insisted with the press that he had flown to the Bahamas last year to discuss a multi-billion euro charitable initiative backed by a huge network of evangelical Christians.
In his interview, the PN leader also criticised Dr Muscat over his recent remarks on immigration.
“These people are victims. You cannot fan the flames (of xenophobia) in this way,” he said, adding that the Maltese should be proud of having saved almost 300 lives.
Dr Busuttil stressed that the PN administration had never sent migrants back to Libya. It was Italy that used the pushback policy because it had an agreement with the Libyan authorities.
However, the European Court of Human Rights found this breached human rights, he said, adding that it was “very dangerous” for the Prime Minister to be suggesting such a policy for Malta.
“This is not a matter of compassion but international obligations and laws. We must respect our international obligations,” he stressed.
Asked what the PN had done on this issue, Dr Busuttil insisted it had not been a complete failure because it got €130 million in EU funds and managed to get about 2,000 migrants relocated to the US and other EU countries.
Though accepting that the previous government could have done more, he stressed that Labour placed none of its MEPs in the European Parliament’s committee on immigration.
On Dr Muscat’s threats to use a veto at EU level to lobby for migration assistance, Dr Busuttil said the Government should have tried to negotiate civilly “before pushing the atomic button”.
He accused the Prime Minister of being deceptive in the electoral campaign by talking about higher political standards, then giving the people a government of “anything goes”.
“If we made mistakes in the past it does not mean Joseph Muscat can do worse than what we have done,” he said.
The appointment of TV presenter Lou Bondì to a committee was just a “desperate” attempt to make people believe the Malta Tagħna Lkoll slogan was true, he added.
Dr Busuttil criticised the Government’s energy project, saying the country did not need to generate so much electricity. This, he said, would make the Government hold back on investing in renewable energy.
On party financing, Dr Busuttil said the PN would listen to the Government’s proposals and react accordingly.
Asked about gay marriage, the PN leader said the word marriage should be “reserved” for men and women.
However, the PN was open to people who believed in gay marriage, just as it was open to those who were more “traditional”.