Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/343370
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 9 JULY 2014 News 5 MATTHEW VELLA The final submissions from the lawyers of John Dalli and the Euro- pean Commission in the EU's court were a far more sober affair than the political recriminations of Monday's hearing, that gave José Manuel Bar- roso a stage to hit out at Dalli one last time. In Tuesday's hearing, judges from the General Court of the European Court of Justice put forward the likely scenario in which the decision on Dalli's claim of unfair dismissal will be taken. Was Dalli accorded the kind of serenity he should have had when presented with the prospect of being fired from the Commission; or was Dalli accepting to resign voluntar- ily instead of forcing Barroso's hand and firing him? Dalli's defence was forthright in its submissions. Barroso wanted Dalli out, but without having to do the dirty work of invoking Article 17(6) of the Lisbon Treaty and sack- ing him. The 90-minute discussion between Dalli and Barroso was in- tended at cornering Dalli into 'ac- cepting' to resign. Judges putting questions to the defence team had to delve into whether Dalli had the necessary free will to make an informed choice at that point: had Barroso really en- tertained the prospect of "express- ing confidence" in Dalli despite the findings of the OLAF investigation; or was Dalli truly faced with fait ac- compli? Turning this argument the other way round, the Commission's law- yers put it that it was Dalli who did not exercise his own choice at forc- ing Barroso's hand: by not making him sack him, Dalli was accepting the resignation. But Dalli's lawyers said that the choice of 'exonerating' Dalli was never on the cards. They know this because Barroso was aware of the OLAF conclusions before the 11 October when he set a meeting for the 16 October; because the deci- sion to communicate the OLAF report to the Maltese attorney gen- eral crucially did not come with a review from the OLAF supervisory committee report; because OLAF director Giovanni Kessler's press conference on the 17 October had already been set; and because Bar- roso's phone-call to Lawrence Gonzi on the day of the resignation was so short, that the European Commis- sion president seemed to have com- municated the briefest of explana- tions to the Maltese prime minister about the resignation of the Maltese commissioner. Dalli, in his first comments after the hearing, zoned in on the crucial point of the OLAF supervisory com- mittee's review of the investigation: "We now know why the OLAF-SC was not given access to the report," he said of Monday's official release of the review of the Dalligate inves- tigation, replete with breaches of internal rules and fundamental hu- man rights. "Barroso knows that the basis of the OLAF report was a fraud… he made a political decision based on a fraud. [He wanted to get rid of me] because of the Tobacco Products Directive," Dalli said. The crucial importance of the OLAF-SC's review of the Dalligate investigation was, as expected, not given equal importance by Com- mission lawyers. They maintained that OLAF was independent of al the EU institutions, and that the OLAF- SC's review had taken months – too long a duration to expect Barroso not to take a political decision and expose the Commission to the dis- repute it had suffered in the Cresson and Eurostat cases. Another area of inquiry was about whether Dalli had accepted to resign by making the request to the Com- mission to have a written resigna- tion letter prepared. Dalli would have asked for amend- ments to the letter because he "found the content of the resignation letter unacceptable". His lawyers said that the fact that Dalli actually amended parts of the letter could not neces- sarily mean that he agreed with the rest of the letter, as the Commission wanted to infer. They also set much store in the fact that Dalli never signed the letter au- thored by head of legal services Luis Romero Requena, nor having been read the final resignation letter. Judge Papasavvas asked Dalli's lawyers whether his view of having been forced to resign, had come sim- ply from the oral communication to him by Barroso that he would have sacked him in the case that he does not resign of his own free will. "In our view, termination does not necessarily mean a recourse to Article 17(6)… Dalli felt forced with no option for various reasons that I will not repeat here; there was no choice... Dalli felt forced, entrapped in the meeting with no possibility to stay on as a member of the College of Commissioners." Again they said, "When Dalli en- tered into the meeting, he was put given the option of either resigning on a voluntary basis or be forcefully dismissed. There was no explana- tion given to Dalli on what 'game we're playing, what the rules apply- ing to me are' – he was not under- standing the legal consequences of the choice he was being faced with. "And we consider that the com- munication by the President led to confusion as to which were the le- gal rules applicable in the case. And this explains why there might be no contradiction between Barroso ask- ing for a voluntary resignation: in any event at the end of the meeting, Dalli would no longer be a member of the Commission, because had he not voluntarily resigned, Barroso would proceed with the dismissal." MIRIAM DALLI THIRTY countries, including Eu- ropean Union member states and North African countries, have con- firmed their participation for the high-level conference in Malta on the looming gas crisis. The Malta Energy Conference, as the European Commission has dubbed it, will also see the active participation of leading stakehold- ers in the energy business. The two-day conference is jointly hosted by the EC Vice President of the European Commission, Günther Oettinger, and Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi. Energy ministers from the partici- pating 28 member states will also be discussing the current state of play of gas supply across Europe after Russia cut its gas supply to Ukraine because of unpaid bills. Malta, together with the European Commission, has drafted a paper proposing a process for enhanced cooperation to ensure security of energy supply. A ministerial session is also ex- pected to focus on the latest de- velopments in the Mediterranean region. The European Commission has recognised that Europe needs to di- versify its sources of gas supply and lessen its dependence on Russia. Malta is taking full advantage of this situation by encouraging bilat- eral talks between North African countries and EU states while it sets on becoming an energy hub in the Mediterranean. Both the Italian and Cypriot Pres- idencies of the European Council support the role the Mediterranean can play in ensuring stable gas re- sources. The conference's first session, moderated by the Energy Minister, will take stock and look at predic- tions for gas in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries. The panel will include Edison CEO Bruno Lescoeur, Leonhard Birn- baum from EON, Socar vice presi- dent Vitaly Baylarbayov and energy policy specialist Professor Brenda Shaffer. During the second session, the conference will focus on develop- ments in North Africa. Partici- pants include Tharwa Petroleum chairman Eng. Raaafat El-Beltagui, Libyan National Oil company rep- resentative Gadalla H. Gadallia and Jordan's Energy Minister Moham- med Haled. Developments in the Eastern Mediterranean will be discussed in the third session. Dalli: Barroso made political decision based on a fraud In the second hearing of John Dalli's case of unfair dismissal against the European Commission, Dalli's lawyer present to judges a scenario in which the former commissioner was faced with a fait accompli that could only result in his ousting 30 countries participating in high- level gas crisis talks in Malta T E N D E R MALTA RESOURCES AUTHORITY Millennia, Aldo Moro Road, Marsa Tel.: 22955121; Fax.: 22955200 http://www.mra.org.mt Lease of Office Space The Malta Resources Authority invites interested parties to submit tender offers for the lease of office space. Sealed tender offers, with the Advert Number MRA/58/2014 clearly marked, must be deposited at the Malta Resources Authority tender box at Millennia, 2nd Floor, Aldo Moro Road, Marsa MRS 9065 by not later than 10 a.m. of Friday 5 th September 2014. Further details may be obtained from the Authority's website: www.mra.org.mt Dalli's defense was forthright in its submissions: Barroso wanted Dalli out, but without having to do the dirty work of invoking Article 17(6) of the Lisbon Treaty and sacking him John Dalli