A confidential 23-page Olaf supervisory committee report presented to members of the press by two foreign MEPs this evening highlights flaws in the EU’s anti-fraud office (OLAF) investigation on former EU Health Commissioner John Dalli, who was forced to resign last year by EC President Jose Manuel Barroso.

Addressing the press at Castille Hotel in Valletta, Green MEPs José Bové and Bart Staes said that they are in Malta in a bid to seek answers related to the forced resignation of Mr Dalli.

They said that EC President Jose Manuel Barroso should shoulder responsibility because “he ruined Malta’s image along with Mr Dalli’s repute”, dubbing the case Barrosogate and not Dalligate as has been referred to.

They claimed that he failed to see that the Olaf supervisory committee was informed of the case immediately and for having allowed the report to be handed to the relevant authorities without adopting the five-day time-frame rule which enables the supervisory committee to verify whether the procedures were followed correctly in terms of the investigation.

“It is normal practice that the timeframe is adopted in a case involving an EU parliamentarian, when under investigation.

“In Mr Dalli’s case, the Olaf file was concluded on October 15 and was handed to the European Commission on the same day,” the MEPs said.

Earlier today, they met with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s chief of staff Keith Schembri and Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia. This evening they intend meeting the newly appointed Commissioner of Police Peter-Paul Zammit to hand him the relevant information connected to the case.

Mr Dalli was responsible for the EU's tobacco regulations. According to a report by its own watchdog, the EU’s anti fraud agency (OLAF) went beyond its mandate and possibly broke laws in the way it obtained information in the so-called Dalligate investigation.

The two MEPs had revealed, after having published a recording of a conversation with a Swedish Match official, Johann Gabrielson, that an alleged meeting which implicated Mr Dalli in a multi-million bribe to the company, had never taken place.

However, Mr Bove did point out that Mr Dalli’s only wrong move was that he met up with Gayle Kimberley who presented a report showing why the snus smokeless tobacco directive should not be lifted. At no point in time since the case came to light, did Mr Dalli ever deny he met with Dr Kimberley.

Dr Kimberley, the lobbyist appointed by Swedish Match to secure access to the former EU commissioner, denied in court that she had suggested Mr Zammit to secure the lifting of the EU ban on snus smokeless tobacco.

Both MEPs called on European Commission President José Barroso to explain the reasons behind Mr Dalli’s forced resignation from the Commission, in the light of an OLAF investigation leaked report that found no direct proof that implicates Mr Dalli in an alleged bribe.

Mr Dalli was accused by the EU’s anti-fraud office director Giovanni Kessler of having been aware that Silvio Zammit (former Sliema councillor) and a canvasser of Mr Dalli, was using Mr Dalli’s name to solicit a €60 million bribe from Swedish Match to water down the EU tobacco products directive. Mr Dalli denies any involvement.

Swedish Match, the tobacco products’ company which manufactures snus, whose manufacture and sale is banned outside of Sweden by the newly-introduced EU directive, is at the centre of the 'Dalligate' affair.

Mr Staes said that when EU parliamentarians negotiated the regulations of Olaf, we highlighted that we should act as a normal State when an investigation is  conducted, and done under the supervision of a magistrate, as is the case in most countries.

The aim is to guarantee the fundamental rights of those under investigation by Olaf.

As things stand, in any Olaf investigation, it is the supervisory committee that follows all leads in a case and following this case, that of Mr Dalli, we are renegotiating the Olaf regulations so that investigations are conducted in a more transparent manner.

“Our objective is to see that all procedures are followed according to regulations and case law of the European Court of Justice,” the MEPs said.

The MEPs said that they had no personal interest in voicing their concerns in the case, Mr Bove highlighting that as a matter of fact “I did not share the same views with Mr Dalli regarding GMOs.”  They claimed that Mr Dalli was working hard to introduce a directive against tobacco and as a result tobacco companies felt threatened and tried their best to find a way to stop the new directive from being issued.

They claimed that Mr Barroso’s office had sent an e-mail to Swedish Match to inform them that Mr Dalli had resigned, three minutes after the press release highlighting Mr Dalli’s resignation as commissioner was issued to the international press.

The MEPs highlighted that the Olaf supervisory committee concluded in its ‘confidential’ report, that Olaf turned to the wrong source for information, that of Swedish Match; conducted the case in less than 24 hours and only took into account Swedish Match’s side of the coin; that the proper rules were not followed which called for a special investigation team to be set up; the scope of investigation changed, from an internal investigation to an external one.

The report highlights that the recorded telephone calls covered notions of certain individuals’ private lives, which goes against Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The report also revealed that  the telephone call mentioned in the Olaf file leaked to the Maltese press, between Mr Zammit and an ESTOC representative, the European Smokeless Tobacco Council, was recorded without the knowledge of Mr Zammit.

Finally, they said that the manner in which the investigation was finalised is a breach of law of the European Court of Justice which stipulates that the supervisory committee has to be immediately informed and given five days to investigate whether the investigation procedures were conducted correctly.

The report, presented to the press, as described by the MEPs as a "bomb".

They said that when they learnt of Mr Dalli's case and resignation, they couldn't figure out what was happening and decided to kickstart an investigation.