Barroso to testify before court in Dalli case
European Commission president will appear before EU court in a case brought by former European commissioner for health, who resigned as part of a corruption investigation.
José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, will appear before the European Union’s General Court on 8 July to explain his role in the controversial dismissal of John Dalli as European commissioner for health.
Dalli resigned from the Commission in October 2012. The veteran Maltese politician claims that Barroso forced him out after presenting him with a report from the Commission’s anti-fraud agency OLAF, which revealed that a contact of Dalli’s had demanded tens of millions of euros in exchange for influencing the commissioner. OLAF argued that Dalli must have known about the offer.
The contact, Silvio Zammit, had told tobacco firm Swedish Match that the payments would ensure that the EU lifted a ban on snus, a smoke-free tobacco that is legal in Sweden but not elsewhere in the EU.
Dalli has always denied any knowledge of the offer. Following Dalli’s resignation, MEPs criticised OLAF and Barroso for their handling of the case.
In December 2012, Dalli filed an appeal and a claim for damages with the EU’s General Court. His legal team, led by lawyer Laure Levi of Lallemand & Legros, are seeking the annulment of Barroso’s “oral decision […] to exercise his prerogative to require the applicant to submit his resignation as a member of the Commission”.
The court will also hear from Johannes Laitenberger, Barroso’s head of cabinet, Luis Romero Requena, the head of the Commission’s legal service, Frédéric Vincent, who was the spokesperson for Dalli and is now spokesperson for Tonio Borg, the European commissioner for health, and Joanna Darmanin, who was Dalli’s head of cabinet.
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