Brussels foes José Manuel Barroso and John Dalli will meet again tomorrow to battle it out before the European Court of Justice following the former European commissioner’s forced resignation in 2012.
Mr Dalli will be the first to speak following his complaint that Mr Barroso sacked him from his position in a case which had rocked the EU executive in October 2012.
The former Maltese minister was forced to resign when Mr Barroso presented him with the findings of the EU’s anti-fraud agency probe, which concluded there was evidence to suggest Mr Dalli was aware his former canvasser Silvio Zammit had asked for a bribe to influence tobacco legislation.
The Maltese commissioner did not have access to the report and was only given 30 minutes to make up his mind, instead of the 24 hours he asked for.
In his case before the ECJ, Mr Dalli is disputing the official announcement he had stepped down, but is claiming he was sacked on the basis of a report he claims is “fraudulent”.
The only people able to ask questions will be the five judges
The investigation was criticised on points of procedure and also because the evidence linking Mr Dalli to the bribe requests were a series of call logs showing he exchanged phone calls with Mr Zammit at key junctures when the latter was dealing with tobacco lobbyists.
The anti-fraud agency OLAF also accused Mr Dalli of having had undeclared meetings with tobacco lobbyists.
As a signatory of the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the EU is required to reveal all meetings with the tobacco industry.
However, only last month, the European Ombudsman opened a probe into allegations that other members of the Commission failed to disclose meetings with tobacco lobbyists.
Mr Barroso’s head of Cabinet, Johannes Laitenberger, will testify as will the head of the commission’s legal services, Luis Romero Requena, Mr Dalli’s former head of cabinet, Joanna Darmanin, and his former spokesman Frederic Vincent.
Tomorrow’s hearing will be dedicated to witness statements and the only people who able to ask questions will be the five judges.
Sources close to the ECJ said open hearings like tomorrow’s are very rare. Moreover, this particular case has attracted considerable attention, not least because it comes four months before Mr Barroso ends his term at the EC.
It will be followed by another hearing on Tuesday in which the lawyers of both sides will be able to make their case.
Contrary to the Maltese system where the judiciary would start hearing a case at the first sitting, the judges tomorrow will be thoroughly briefed about the case.
Aside from the tussle over whether Mr Dalli was pushed or whether he jumped, the former commissioner has been making a broader case to argue he was the victim of a conspiracy that saw Mr Barroso collaborate with Big Tobacco to eliminate him.
It is still unclear whether the judges tomorrow will entertain this line – which has both supporters and critics within EU circles – or whether they will stick to the main claim of unfair dismissal.