Criminal charges against Dalli unlikely

John Dalli, who last year resigned as Malta’s European commissioner following allegations of a lobbying scandal, is most unlikely to face criminal charges in Malta, according to a story in the European Voice citing the country’s police commissioner.

Dalli resigned from his position as commissioner for health and consumer affairs in October, shortly before the European Commission unveiled its proposed revisions to the Tobacco Products Directive.

In an interview with a Maltese television station, Peter Paul Zammit, who became Malta’s police commissioner in April, reportedly said that investigations were continuing into the allegations against Dalli.

But, he added, having discussed the case with the attorney general, he did not feel there was, at the moment, sufficient evidence for a criminal case against Dalli.

The police commissioner’s announcement was seized upon by critics of Giovanni Kessler, the head of the EU’s anti-fraud office, OLAF. It was a report by OLAF, based on an investigation in which Kessler was involved, that prompted José Manuel Barroso, the president of the Commission, to demand Dalli’s resignation.

Kessler is due to appear before the European Parliament’s budgetary control committee on 18 June.