Updated 7.42pm - Former European Commissioner John Dalli said this evening that he is considering an appeal after the European Court rejected his claim of unfair dismissal from the European Commission.

The court concluded that Mr Dalli resigned voluntarily at a meeting with President Barroso on October 16, 2012.

"The sentence delivered today by the European Court leaves me in the same position I was yesterday. I am studying the sentence with my lawyers with a view to deciding whether to appeal," Mr Dalli said in a statement.  

In its judgement, the court found that on October 16, 2012 a meeting took place between Mr Barroso and Mr Dalli following the conclusion of an OLAF report concluding that the then Commissioner had on several occasions been in contact with representatives of the tobacco industry in unofficial and confidential meetings.

On the basis testimonies heard, the court found that  Mr Dalli resigned orally during the meeting with Mr Barroso..

The court said that at an early stage of the meeting, Mr Barroso had decided Mr Dalli should leave the Commission and that he was determined, should it have proved necessary, to exercise his power to request his resignation.

At the same time, Mr Barroso was willing to give Mr Dalli the opportunity to resign voluntarily.

In that context, the fact that Mr Barroso asserted, increasingly insistently in the face of Mr Dalli’s reluctance and hesitation, that it would be more honourable for him to resign voluntarily than to be asked to do so, did not suffice to establish the existence of the alleged contested decision, the court said.

It said Mr Barroso’s words, however insistent they may have been, did not result in a request which was capable of affecting Mr Dalli’s interests by significantly altering his legal situation.

Since the existence of that request – which was the act Mr Dalli’s application purported to challenge - had not been established, the Court dismissed the action as inadmissible.

In consequence, it also rejected Mr Dalli’s claim for compensation.
An appeal, limited to points of law only, may be brought before the Court of
Justice within two months.

The judgment can be read in the pdf link below.

BUSUTTIL REACTS - COURT DID NOT BELIEVE CONSPIRACY THEORIES

In a reaction to the European Court decision, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said: "The European Court today did not believe the conspiracy theories about John Dalli and it reiterated the truth – and the truth was that he resigned."

 

Attached files

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