Former Health Commissioner John Dalli had been lobbied on the tobacco directive by German politician Edmund Stoiber, who heads the European Commission’s high-level group on cutting administrative burdens, a EurActiv investigation found.

The investigation found that Mr Stoiber’s intervention, on behalf of a Bavarian snuff manufacturer, took place on May when the High Level Group of Independent Stakeholders on Administrative Burdens met Mr Dalli in Brussels to discuss health policies.

During the meeting Mr Stoiber mentioned “a complaint received a few days before from a medium-sized tobacco company”, a Commission spokesman told EurActiv.

The intervention is believed to have lasted around a quarter of an hour, and was followed up by Mr Stoiber when he subsequently forwarded the letter from the tobacco company to Mr Dalli on May 10.

The interjection was not mentioned in the official minutes of the group, which are published on its web site. The spokesman said that these usually focused only on “issues discussed in more detail”.

The spokesman said that in replying to Mr Stoiber on June 28, Mr Dalli explained the rationale behind his directive and “this closed the matter for the HLG”.