Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/396532
maltatoday, Sunday, 12 OctOber 2014 News 7 Matthew Vella OppOsitiOn leader simon Bu- suttil has declared having met both tobacco lobbyists inside the Euro- pean parliament, as well as members from health nGOs, during an inten- sive campaign to influence MEps on their votes in the controversial to- bacco products Directive. the law tightening smoking legisla- tion, spearheaded by former Europe- an Commissioner John Dalli before resigning on 16 October 2012 over allegations that he had entertained a bribe for the weakening of the rules, was being opposed by lobbyists from philip Morris international, the to- bacco giant. According to an Excel sheet that had been leaked by transparency nGO Corporate European Ob- servatory, and featured in a recent exposé on French channel France 2 on tobacco lobbying, philip Morris lobbyists in Brussels would list all MEps according to their opinions on tobacco issues. simon Busuttil was listed as hav- ing shown views that were positive to the tobacco industry, according to the lobbyists' MEp list. the tobacco lobbyists used a colour scheme to show the opinions of all MEps on six key issues. Green means positive for the tobacco industry, red means negative. the key issues are Generic packaging [Gp], Expanded Health Warnings [EHW], ingredi- ents Ban [iB], point of sales Display Ban [pOsDB], new Generation products [nGp] and snus. the latter refers to tobacco taken directly into the mouth in small pouches, which is only legal in sweden, and was the sticking point that led to allegations that Dalli entertained a bribe to lift the EU retail ban on smokeless to- bacco. A spokesperson for simon Busuttil confirmed with Maltatoday that the former Epp member had met both tobacco and health lobbyists on the tpD, but that Busuttil "had no posi- tion on the law", pointing out that Busuttil had resigned as MEp before the vote on the tpD. Corporate European Observatory had said that a synopsis of the differ- ent lists showed that philip Morris international identified almost 130 MEps that supported the company's position on not expanding health warnings on the packaging. in con- trast, slightly more than 40 MEps were against the tobacco industry's plans. 'Target the Commissioner' the France 2 investigative pro- gramme 'Cash investigation' last week suggested that the tobacco in- dustry could have forced the remov- al of John Dalli, quoting from a 600- page internal document form pMi. the crucial piece of the document were slides showing a strategy to "target European Commissioner", using Brussels and international stakeholders, the media in both pan- European as well national media. Another slide is titled "strat- egy: possible Commission reverse tactics", featuring the objective to "achieve extreme measures by stealth". Dalli, shown the documents dur- ing the France 2 programme, said they were evidence that he had been targeted by tobacco lobbyists in a bid to spike the tobacco products Directive. Later in the week, Dalli circulated a copy of the France 2 programme to Maltese newsrooms as well as the list of MEps showing simon Busut- til's name as having been partial to tobacco lobbyists' concerns on the tpD. there is no love lost between si- mon Busuttil and Dalli: Busuttil claimed that prime Minister Joseph Muscat interfered in a police investi- gation to get Dalli off the hook from prosecution on the alleged bribery; Busuttil was referring to claims in court by the former police commis- sioner John Rizzo, who said he want- ed to file bribery charges against Dalli but did not do because of the March 2013 election. His successor, peter paul Zammit, however had de- clared shortly after the election that there was no evidence to be brought against Dalli. Drug traffickers heading to Malta stopped at Pozzallo Government departments clash over maternity leave Busuttil says he had no position on tobacco as MeP MCST/Q15/2014 – Call for Quotations for the Provision of a Certified Accountant to carry out Accountancy Services at the Malta Council for Science & Technology The Malta Council for Science and Technology is issuing a Call for Quotations for the Provision of a Certied Accountant to carry out Accountancy Services at the Malta Council for Science & Technology. Interested bidders are to submit their offers clearly marked "Quotation for the Provision of a Certied Accountant to carry out Accountancy Services at the Malta Council for Science & Technology (MCST/Q15/2014)". Sealed offers are to be deposited in the tender box located at Malta Council for Science and Technology, Villa Bighi, Il-Kalkara by not later than 10.00 a.m. of Friday, 17th October 2014. Late submissions will not be considered. The Malta Council For Science And Technology, Villa Bighi, Kalkara KKR 1320, Malta www.mcst.gov.mt itALiAn police stopped two men at pozzallo as they attempted to leave sicily on the catamaran for Malta with 1.1kg of marijuana. Michele Artale, 44, and sandro Lo presti, 40, both from Ragusa, reside in Malta. the drugs were found in their car, a Fiat Uno with Maltese number plates. the duo were stopped after acting suspiciously. initial inspection of the car only revealed large quantities of peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, onions and potatoes. Upon removing the first side of the panel of the car's interior, an en- velope securely wrapped in a cloth soaked in diesel – to deceive sniffer dogs – sprang out. Had they managed to make it to Malta with their haul, the drug traf- fickers would have made around €16,500. tWO government departments are at loggerheads over whether female state school teachers should be com- pensated when they take maternity leave in their annual summer holi- days, an informed industry source told this newspaper. "While the industrial Relations and Employment Department thinks that these teachers should receive com- pensation, the public Administra- tion Human Resources office doesn't think that they should," the source said. "it's a problem that stretches back at least two years and while they have had internal meetings to try and pan out their differences, no solution has been found." teachers' union president Kevin Bonello called on Friday for an end to what he described as "discrimination" against female state school teach- ers who don't get any compensation when their maternity leave coincides with their summer holidays. private and church school teachers do. Employed women are entitled to 14 weeks of paid maternity leave. How- ever, Bonello does not think that this should be the case for these teach- ers. "We are calling for a halfway meas- ure, for these teachers to be compen- sated for four to five weeks," Bonello said.