The College of European Commissioners backed the decision by Josè Manuel Barroso to demand John Dalli’s resignation, according to Maria Damanaki.
His position had become politically untenable
The Greek European Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs stressed during a brief visit to the island yesterday that Mr Barroso’s decision was a political one because Mr Dalli’s position had become untenable.
“The (Commission) president had the right to ask Mr Dalli to resign and the College (of Commissioners) supported him. But I must emphasise that this was a political decision,” Ms Damanaki said.
Mr Dalli resigned after Mr Barroso confronted him with a report by the EU’s anti-fraud agency, OLAF. According to Ms Damanaki, after the report reached Mr Barroso, “the position of Mr Dalli in the Commission had become politically untenable”.
She said there was also a judicial issue involved but the EU Executive would not go into that matter.
“The Commission sent the OLAF report to the Maltese authorities and now it is up to them to see how to move from the judicial viewpoint. What I can say is that, for me, presumption of innocence still applies.”
Mr Barroso has stuck to his guns on his decision to ask Mr Dalli to resign. He said that, despite the recent media speculation on the case and the fact-finding mission of Green MEPs to the island, his position has not changed. Shrugging off suggestions that he would have acted differently had Mr Dalli hailed from a large member state and not from Malta, Mr Barroso said the former Health and Consumer Affairs Commissioner’s nationality had no bearing in his decision that had was only been based on OLAF’s conclusions.
OLAF had concluded that there was “unambiguous circumstantial evidence” that Mr Dalli knew that his canvasser – Silvio Zammit – was asking for money in order to influence the Commission’s stance on changing tobacco rules.
The report was harshly criticised by some MEPs and the committee overlooking the EU’s anti-fraud office, raising questions about the methods used in the investigation.
The police have arraigned Mr Zammit, who faces fraud and trading in influence charges.
Mr Dalli has been questioned by the police but no charges have been brought against him so far.