And here's John Dalli again, in EU Business
John Dalli with Muammar Gaddafi in 1987 - they're just camping
EU Business is the leading independent online information service about the European Union.
Maltese Commissioner defends pro-Kadhafi speech 05 March 2011, 18:35 CET
(BRUSSELS) – Maltese European Commissioner John Dalli on Saturday defended remarks backing Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi that broke ranks with EU diplomatic leaders who want the veteran colonel out.
Dalli, who has enjoyed close commercial ties with Tripoli for a quarter of a century, told a Maltese business forum on Friday that he “didn’t think (he) had the right, or anyone else, to make a statement on whether (Kadhafi) should step down.”
“I think Kadhafi should make his own decisions. He has the assessment of the people, as he has said on TV,” Dalli added. “I think Kadhafi has made the first attempt towards conciliation.”
The 62-year-old commissioner also backed Kadhafi’s suggestion that outside forces had manipulated media coverage of protests over the past fortnight, leading to the present situation of near-civil war.
“Sometimes doubt creeps into one’s head when seeing people speaking perfect English and hoisted up by a group of people made to look like a crowd. I wonder if they might be shots ‘created’ for journalists,” Dalli was quoted as saying by Maltese media.
Dalli’s boss, EU commission president Jose Manuel Barroso, this week said it was time for Kadhafi “to go and give the country back to the people of Libya,” with the EU’s foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton also demanding that Kadhafi “stand aside.”
Spokesman Frederic Vincent told AFP he had been in contact with Dalli on Saturday, and argued that “personal commentaries” on a country he knows well, “that’s no secret,” should not be confused with his core beliefs.
“He said a solution that respects human rights had to be found,” Vincent insisted.
“That is totally in line with the democratic values that guide the commission.
“And in making some additional personal commentaries — to a Maltese business audience, close neighbours remember — he was only doing what millions of people around the world are doing.”
Of protest images being staged to suit an anti-Kadhafi agenda, Vincent stressed: “I have spoken to the commissioner, and he was talking about images on both sides, pro-regime demonstrations as well.”
Consultancy firm John Dalli & Associates was set up in 2004, with offices in Tripoli. Online autobiographical notes say it focuses on “introducing and facilitating the establishment of Western companies in the north African economies, especially Libya.”
Dalli, who owns a home in Tripoli, worked for a Libyan-Maltese Joint Commission from 1987 to 1996 and 1998 to 2004 — periods when Libya was under UN sanctions.
For political reasons, the consultancy business is now run by his family.
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I see they haven’t changed their headline to a false claim that the EU presidency played down Dalli’s remarks.
That’s what Malta Today did, claiming that Frederic Vincent spoke for Barroso, and not for Dalli himself.
Frederic Vincent is Dalli’s official spokesman. Here he is, listed under ‘My Team’, on John Dalli’s official EC page
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/dalli/about/team/index_en.htm#spokesperson
Here’s his phone number, in case Malta Today want to find out for themselves.
Tel.: +32 (0)2 29 87166
How about putting a stop to all these attacks on John Dalli, after all he has a wright to his opinion, as anyone else. It would do more good to our Libyan friends if you were to give a start to a campaign for collecting funds and medicine, That is what they really need and not all this mud throwing on one of our most worthy politicians.
Keep up, Silvio Loporto.
http://daphnecaruanagalizia.com/2011/02/28/grtu-kickstarts-maltas-humanitarian-aid-effort/
Dalli is neither worthy nor ‘our’ politician. As his recent offensive remarks show, he is an unworthy EU commissioner.
Thanks for enlightining me. I never knew that Mrs Caruana Galizia was a member of the GRTU.
[Daphne – I’m not, but I’m happy to help.]
… as much as I have a right to mine.
Joh Dalli has a right to his opinion but he also has obligations to Malta, to the European Union and to a suffering humanity to the south of us.
Careful, Dr. Saliba. The Commissioner’s spokesmen might think that he has the right to express four different opinions on the same subject, and then yet another one as EU Commissioner.
John Dalli’s aim was to be Malta’s prime minister. He’s gone one further than that by becoming more well-known than that, and for all the wrong reasons.
John Dalli has not one but two valid lines of defence:
1. insanity
2. it’s Carnival time in Malta.
If neither work, he should resign even before Gaddafi goes or is removed.
Come on Mr. Loporto you are free to agree with John Dalli’s opinion. You have the right (not wright Mr.Silvio); have you by any chance followed the exhortations from world leaders for Gaddafi to call it a day? Have you heard the comments of the thousands who fled from Libya?
Sorry for the missspelling, but you know I wasn”t as lucky as some. Yes of course, I heard the comments and you are perfectly right ( I am learning) but I even heard the comments of the people who came from Tripoli including the nun.
While Commissioner Dalli has every right to own property, as a public person he has to be accountable. Passing his business interests to his daughter after being appointed EU commissioner raises more questions.
John Dalli also has to explain the profits his company made from Libya. He had made this public on the 11 November 2007 when he was asked by the press “how did you manage to raise a guarantee of approximately €3.4 million from Fimbank to help your brother’s ailing business?”
His reply was that all would be answered when his company’s accounts were published as he is obliged to do by law. Since then these accounts have not been published and John Dalli & Associates do not seem to be listed at the Malta Financial Services Authority register. As a politician, accountability is a must and in view of the circumstances EU Commissioner John Dalli should resign pending an enquiry into his past business interests in Libya.
After all, he was conducting business there when Libya was under UN sanctions.