Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/232206
4 News maltatoday, SUNDAY, 22 DECEMBER 2013 Kimberley still member of EC staff despite OLAF findings Lawyer did not have job terminated at European Council despite being identified as 'accomplice' in alleged bribery request MATTHEW VELLA Gayle Kimberley A Freedom of Information request by transparency campaigners in Brussels, has confirmed that Gayle Kimberley – identified by anti-fraud agency OLAF as an accomplice in the Dalligate bribery scandal – is still a member of the European Council's staff. The confirmation comes two months since transparency campaigners Corporate Europe Observatory filed FOI requests to the European Council, where Kimberley, 37, was employed as a lawyer. Although Kimberley is still employed at the European Council, it appears that she retained her employment despite being identified as a possible accomplice in the alleged Dalligate bribery. OLAF, the EU's anti-fraud agency, found that Kimberley and Silvio Zammit – currently facing criminal charges – had allegedly been accomplices in a €60 million bribery request from Swedish Match and smokeless tobacco lobby ESTOC. Kimberley was at the time a lobbyist appointed by Swedish Match to provide them with access to former EU commissioner for health and consumer policy John Dalli, in the hope of repealing an EU ban on the retail of snus tobacco. Dalli was believed by OLAF to have been aware of the bribery attempt, solely by the circumstantial evidence of telephone call logs where it was shown that Dalli was speaking to Zammit before and after crucial telephone calls between Zammit, Kimberley, and ESTOC officials. The OLAF report led to Dalli's forced resignation at the behest of EC president José Manuel Barroso. No criminal charges were issued against Dalli or Kimberley, but Zammit – currently facing charges in court – denies the accusations. Kimberley was recently interrogated by police yet again, in what appears to be a renewed police investigation into Dalligate since the appointment of a new commissioner of police. Earlier in June, the European Council turned down a request to publish information pertaining to Kimberley's job titles at the Council's legal service, including correspondence relating to the authorisation of the roles she served. The information was not made available after Kimberley – a member of the Council's legal services – "explicitly objected to the transfer of any of her personal data to recipients other than community institutions and bodies". The original request was filed by Rachel Tansey, a campaigner at Corporate Europe Observatory, which works to challenge privileged access and influence enjoyed by corporations and their lobby groups in EU policymaking. Tansey's request called on the European Council to publish copies of applications that Kimberley made under Article 16 of the Staff Regulations to undertake a new professional activity and all correspondence, including emails, relating to the authorisation of the roles. Kimberley spent six years (between 2004 and 2011) working at the European Council's legal services in Brussels, where at one point she handled European enlargement policy. In its reply, the General Secretariat refused public access to the requested documents due to privacy laws. "The Council has consulted Ms Kimberley, who explicitly objected to the transfer of any of her personal data to recipients other than community institutions and bodies," the Council said in its reply. "After careful consideration, the council does not consider that such interests prevail over the interest in the protection of Ms Kimberley's privacy and integrity." It was during this time that Kimberley met Johan Gabrielsson, an official with the European Commission, who would later leave to work for Swedish Match, and propose Kimberley to act as a lobbyist to broker a meeting with Dalli. During these six years, Kimberley held four different roles within the Council's legal service, starting off within the lawyer's division, she moved on to handling enlargement policy and then social affairs, energy, research and telecommunications. She served her last role – between February 2009 and 31 December 2010 – covering institutional questions and budget and staff regulations. Parties: no breakthrough on citizenship talks MIRIAM DALLI DISCUSSIONS between the gov- ernment and the Opposition have produced no breakthrough on the red lines raised by the Nationalist Party to amend the Individual Investor Programme. The IIP will sell Maltese citizenship for €650,000 and is about to feature in a European Parliament debate on citizenship. The Nationalists, who claim they are against the sale of citi- zenship, are calling for a higher price tag or a tangible form of investment and that the names of IIP citizens are published. The law has already entered into force, without any amendment from the Opposition being accepted. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil yesterday reported in a tweet that "no breakthrough" was registered on the IIP talks with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, at Castille. No conclusions on the required changes have been reached so far. The scheme has been a source of much controversy in the past weeks, with the Opposition leader insisting that his position as one "based on a point of principle: citizenship is not for sale". The scheme has generated massive international interest, both for the fact that an EU member state was selling passports and access to the eurozone for non-EU nationals, as well as for the potential €30 million that the Maltese government is seeking to rake into its public coffers by 2014. The Opposition says the sale of citizenship should be based on a fiveyear residence period and on a minimum €5 million investment. The Prime Minister has also publicly admitted that the government made a mistake by not listening enough to what the stakeholders were saying on the scheme. Last Sunday, Muscat also said that he was positive that the government and the Opposition can agree on certain issues. "The negotiations are now in their final stages... I will remain optimistic to the end," he said. Finance Minister Edward Scicluna has however told members of a European Parliament committee that the number of annual IIP passports could be expected to be capped. Scicluna claimed that the IIP had been hastily announced, leading to international media interest, and denied that the scheme was intended to provide the Maltese consolidated budget with some €15 million to make good for tax cuts.