The European Parliament yesterday voted in favour of proposals for a reform of the EU anti-fraud agency, a move welcomed by the Commission.

It will introduce measures to strengthen agency’s respect of fundamental rights

The vote, which follows several years of discussion, comes in the wake of severe criticism levelled at the agency and its Director General, Giovanni Kessler, in particular, over the handling of the Dalligate investigation, which has created ripples.

The reform will introduce measures to strengthen OLAF’s procedural guarantees (that is, respect of fundamental rights) for any person under investigation. The revised regulation enshrine these procedural rights in EU law, giving them a full and proper legal basis.

These include the right for the person to be informed of his/her rights before being interviewed, to be informed about the issue under investigation and to make the suspects’ views known before conclusions are drawn up; the right to be assisted by a person of one’s choice and the right to use the EU official language of their choice.

In addition, the reform provides for a quality control unit in OLAF to check, among other things, the legality of actions during investigations.

This latter point was a sore issue in the Dalligate investigation, particularly after the agency’s supervisory committee claimed that OLAF could have breached the rights of suspects, especially those of Sliema restaurateur Silvio Zammit, who is the only one to face charges in Malta in connection with the matter.