Former EU Commissioner John Dalli said this evening it was criminal of Olaf, the EU's anti-fraud unit, to stop its supervisory committee from publishing an inquiry report.
Mr Dalli had resigned from EU Commissioner over allegations he used a middleman to ask tobacco firm Swedish Match for millions of euros to change EU legislation.
The European Court of Justice is meeting on Monday and Tuesday to hear statements from Mr Dalli and EU President Jose Manuel Barroso.
Earlier today, Europolitics quoted Herbert Bösch, one of five members of the Supervisory Committee and a former MEP, that the committee had decided to publish the report on its inquiry today but Olaf asked the office not to.
“If we no longer have a secretarial department, how can we do our work! This is a real mess,” Mr Bösch reportedly told Europolitics.
Last April, a shortened version of the inquiry committee’s report was leaked to the press. It highlighted inconsistencies in OLAF’s inquiry with regard to the European Convention on Human Rights and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. It also detailed problems in accessing data.
Mr Dalli asked this evening:
"What about the citizens’ right to defend themselves against Olaf’s abuses if Olaf has the arrogance to suppress evidence?
"Where are the human rights of the European Citizen?
"If the Supervisory Committee was instituted by Parliament, is this not an affront to Parliament?
"Is Kessler acting under Barroso’s instructions not to show the fraud they committed?
This morning, Green MEPs José Bové and Bart Staes said in a joint statement that if the ECJ proved Mr Dalli right, Mr Barroso and others would be in a real big mess.
They said that if Mr Dalli was proved right, the claim that this whole affair was a set-up to get rid of him would gain credibility and the EC and Olaf would have to explain why all this was done in the strange way it was.
Mr Bové and Mr Staes said that “given the political importance of this case we will both be present at the EJC in Luxemburg."
Mr Staes said that a mere four months before the end of his presidency ends Mr Barroso had to testify in public for the first time as to why he dismissed Mr Dalli so light-heartedly.
“We have dug into this case. And we became more and more convinced that this affair smells funny. Which could explain why EU officials have tried so hard to push things under the carpet and limit transparency. The truth might well be that Dalli had one or two illegitimate meetings with tobacco lobbyists, but also that the EC-hotshots in the Barosso gang that fired him for this had even more undisclosed meetings with lobbyists.”