OLAF director-general Giovanni Kessler was a no-show at this evening's sitting of Parliament's Privileges Committee, informing it that he had not received the necessary authorisation from the European Commission.

The Privileges Committee is discussing a breach of privilege complaint raised by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat against Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil over remarks the latter had made alleging political interference into police investigations on former Commissioner John Dalli.

Mr Dalli was forced to resign after his associate Silvio Zammit was accused of seeking a €60 million bribe to overturn an EU ban on snus, a form of smokeless tobacco native to Sweden: while Mr Zammit is facing criminal proceedings over bribery and trading in influence, Mr Dalli is yet to be charged, with former police commissioner Peter Paul Zammit declaring, shortly after his appointment in 2013, that there was not enough evidence to convict him.

In September of that year, Dr Busuttil called for the former commissioner's resignation and insisted that Dr Muscat should shoulder his responsibility after Dr Zammit's predecessor, John Rizzo, testified in court that he and his team had decided to charge Mr Dalli in agreement with the Attorney General, only for the police to apparently change their mind after his departure.

Dr Busuttil had insisted that Dr Kessler should testify as the Privileges Committee discussed the breach of privileges complaint against him, and since Dr Kessler was in Malta today to testify in the compilation of evidence against Silvio Zammit, the committee sought to get him to testify this evening.

Parliament was under the impression that Dr Kessler was set to appear until he emailed Speaker Anġlu Farrugia, who chairs the committee, at 6:17pm to notify him that the European Commission had not authorised his appearance. This authorisation is required in line with the rules governing staff of EU institutions.

In a letter which was forwarded to the committee, Budget Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva informed Dr Kessler that "given the extremely short prior notice of the invitation received from the Maltese House of Representatives and the scarcity of information contained therein, it is materially impossible for the Commission to grant you the mandatory prior authorisation and permission."

But Dr Farrugia objected to Dr Georgieva's arguments, noting that there had been ongoing correspondence with Dr Kessler and that he had actually been asked in writing to appear in front of the committee on three occasions last year - in July, in September and in October.

On each occasion, he said, Dr Kessler said that this was not necessary since, he said, the contents of a letter he wrote to the committee on 2 July 2014 were sufficient.

Dr Farrugia also said that the claim that insufficient information was being provided was a "lack of seriousness," on the Commission's behalf, stating that when Dr Kessler was first informed that Dr Busuttil wanted him to testify in front of the committee, the reason for this request was clearly stated.

PN secretary-general Chris Said said that a formal request should now be made to the Commission to allow Dr Kessler to appear before the committee. He also said that the committee should consider the letter Dr Kessler sent last July and his testimony in court this morning.

But Tourism Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said that while the government did not object to Dr Kessler appearing before the committee, it was reserving its position about Dr Kessler's testimony in court since it still had to consider its relevance.

The committee thus agreed on asking the Commission to authorise Dr Kessler's appearance at a future date.

Later on, over a number of interruptions by government MPs, Dr Said insisted that the government should lift its ban on Attorney General Peter Grech testifying before the committee. He said that the government's refusal to allow Dr Grech to testify proved the opposition's case, as it showed that there had been communication with him over the case. 

Dalli emails committee MPs after being denied Kessler confrontation

Earlier in the day, Mr Dalli had asked the committee to be granted the opportunity to confront Dr Kessler during the sitting. He had also filed a police report against Dr Kessler, claiming that his testimony in the Silvio Zammit case amounted to perjury and defamation.

But the request to confront Dr Kessler in committee was quickly dismissed by Dr Farrugia: while members of the public are free to attend committee meetings, only sitting MPs may ask questions to witnesses.

Undeterred, Mr Dalli sent an email to all of the committee's members, a copy of which was sent to the press.

The former commissioner told committee member that since "I am not allowed to defend myself," he was enclosing a number of documents for their perusal, including the press release he had issued containing "facts about Kessler's perjury."

He also attached an Italian-language email which, he said, was sent from Dr Kessler to the Office of the Prime Minister, in which he said that "we must meet this week or the next. Let me know, but the meeting is urgent."

The email is dated 21 October, 2012, five days after Mr Dalli's resignation.

Mr Dalli also attached "an exchange of emails that show the organisation of blogs against me."

"I had reported these documents to the police but Commissioner John Rizzo never took action. The action he took was to make an angry phone call to my lawyer saying "DO YOU EXPECT ME TO INVESTIGATE THE COMPUTERS OF OPM?" he wrote.