Former European Commissioner John Dalli denied ever having spoken to his former canvasser Silvio Zammit about money.

Mr Dalli was testifying in court in the compilation of evidence against Mr Zammit, who is accused of trading in influence for changes to the EU's tobacco directive, when Mr Dalli was EU Health Commissioner.

In her testimony a year ago, one of the witnesses, Gayle Kimberley, had told the court that Mr Zammit had requested €60 million to use his influence for the lifting of the EU ban on snus.

In his testimony today Mr Dalli insisted he never discussed snus or money with Mr Zammit.

Before testifying, Magistrate Anthony Vella cautioned Mr Dalli that he had a right not to testify in case he incriminated himself, to which Mr Dalli replied he was there to answer all questions.

On 8 November 2012, Mr Dalli said he had a meeting with Barroso about various aspects of Portfolio, including the tobacco directive, which Mr Barroso told Mr Dalli to shelve as his legal services are raising many legal issues. Mr Dalli said he declined stating he had political commitment with European Citizens.

“I also stated that my services have informed me that since a Mr Petit came on the scene as a lobbyist for the tobacco industry, the legal services were changing the opinions that they had given earlier to SANCO,” Mr Dalli said.

Mr Petit was the Director General Legal Services until a few years ago.  As such he was one of the triumvirate that ran the Commission with President Barroso and Secretary General Catherine Day.  Therefore he was very close with them, Mr Dalli said.

Petit was voted as the worst example of revolving doors in the commission since as soon as he retired from his job as Director General Legal Service he was engaged by Clifford Chance and operates as a lobbyist for Philip Morris. This notwithstanding, Petit was appointed by Barroso to be on the ethics ad hoc committee, responsible to scrutinise the revolving door of commissioners.

Mr Dalli also gave a timeline of hoe matters developed

28 Feb 2012 - Finalisation of Directive Parameters with SANCO

29 Feb 2012 – Meeting with Health NGO's and MEP's

7 Mar 2012 – Meeting with Tobacco industry

21 Mar 2012 – SANCO presents Impact Assessment to Impact Assessment Board

20 Apr 2012 – First Opinion of Impact Assessment Board

11 Jun 2012 – SANCO resubmits Impact Assessment to Board after changes

12 Jul 2012 – Second Opinion of Impact Assessment Board (tobacco directive cleared for SANCO to prepare for Interservice consultation)

22 Aug 2012 Planned Launching of Interservice Consultation

7 Nov 2012 planned adoption by College of Commissioners.

24 Jul 2012, Barroso Cabinet enquire whether OLAF will conclude investigation before Summer Holidays – I.e before the planned launch

25 Jul 2012 – Catherine Day, Secretary General of Commission and Romero, DG Legal Services of Commission sent letter to SANCO to postpone the launching of the Interservice Consultation

7 Sep 2012 – Amendments to SANCO proposals agreed with Sec Gen and DG Legal Service. A new launch date was agreed to last week September

23 Sep 2012 – Email by Catherine Day to postpone launching a second time, the excuse being the EU Summit to take place in 3 weeks time, but in fact they were waiting for closure of OLAF investigation.

22 Oct 2012 – New date for launching of Interservice Consultation.

16 Oct 2012 was the day of Mr Dalli’s removal from office.  “My staff informed that the Tobacco Directive is in Suspended Animation,” he said.

On his termination Mr Dalli said that on:

5 October 2012 – Barroso Cabinet phoned OLAF to enquire when report will be finished.

11 Oct 2012 – Kessler sends meeting request to his investigator in charge of the file (Subject: Dead Body) for a closure meeting to be held on the 15 Oct 2012.

On the same day Barroso’s Cabinet fixed meeting with Dalli Cabinet for Dalli to meet Barroso on 16 Oct 2012. The meeting had no agenda, Mr Dalli said.

14 Oct 2012 – OLAF phones Swedish Match to tell them that there will be a press conference on 17 Oct 2012.

Oct 2012 – OLAF report passed to Barroso

16 Oct 2012 – Meeting between Dalli and Barroso, in which Barroso states that report was received previous day and acts as if he did not know anything about it before then.

Mr Dalli said Barroso read from the covering letter and refused to show him covering letter and report, refused to give him time to consult lawyer and only concedes 30 minutes.

Mr Dalli told Barroso that it was obvious that “I could not work with him anymore and to send me the dismissal in writing. He did and I did not sign the resignation

That same day Catherine Day wrote to Swedish Match telling them that “Dalli is finished”.

17 Oct 2012 – Kessler holds press conference which Mr Dalli described as a theatrical rendition with disregard to the presumption of innocence.

In other parts of his testimony, Mr Dalli said that he had met Silvio Zammit about his candidature in Local Elections

He said he was in Malta to meet former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to discuss “how I can help him in the internal problems he was facing in the party.  He asked me to talk to Franco Debono re an upcoming vote in Parliament – I believe it was the vote of no confidence on Austin Gatt.  I did talk to Franco Debono and reported back to Gonzi.”