Does anybody care for John Dalli? Then they should stop him now.
Regardless of the contents of the OLAF report which nobody but the Attorney-General will see, it is precisely this kind of attitude and behaviour which made John Dalli completely unfit for office right from the start.
The EU Commission president offered him a way out to preserve his dignity – saying in public that he had resigned of his own accord rather than being sacked – and Dalli took this as an abusive gesture and an insult instead and made a public spectacle out of it.
The man simply doesn’t know how to behave. And he can’t even understand proper behaviour in others.
And as a not-totally-irrelevant aside, his English and grammar are totally appalling (“demand for it”) and his inability to see that he should have his letters written by somebody who can write, if he can’t write himself, is another major failing.
Slapdash, u ejja ha mmorru, and below standard in every respect. Shocking.
He was always going to be a major accident waiting to happen. And now it’s happened.
Malta has nominated a new Commissioner, Dalli has been locked out of the building – literally – but now he is saying that he didn’t really resign because he didn’t sign the letter that was drafted for him and he didn’t receive a formal resignation request in writing.
In situations like this, where the individual concerned is no longer thinking straight perhaps because of the terrible stress, it is the duty of family and friends to step in and prevent further self-harm and, in this case, damage to Malta.
Instead, Saviour Balzan at least, through the medium of his newspaper, appears to be egging him on further. This is grossly irresponsible.
We are now witnessing the tragic dissolution of John Dalli into a pathetic figure banging on the EU Commission’s locked door and demanding to keep his job, even as the new incumbent moves in.
I cannot say that he is divesting himself, or being divested of, his dignity, because the man never had a shred of it to begin with. But really, somebody who cares about him should sit him down and stop him.
Nobody did it with Jeffrey Pullicino and Franco Debono, presumably because nobody really cares about them, though they should have done, but the damage they did was contained within Malta’s shores. Dalli’s implosion and consequent embarrassment are on a pan-European scale.
On Malta Today’s online edition, this morning:
DALLI DEMANDS WRITTEN REQUEST FOR RESIGNATION FROM JOSE BARROSO
‘Without such a request, there is no resignation’, commissioner says after having refused to sign resignation letter provided by Commission’s legal services.
John Dalli has told EC president José Barroso that he wants a request for resignation in writing. By Matthew Vella
John Dalli has not yet submitted a formal letter of resignation to the European Commission, because he is claiming that EC president Jose Manuel Barroso has not yet given him the formal reasons for his resignation under Article 17.6 of the Treaty of the European Union.
In a letter to Barroso sent Sunday 21 October, Dalli told the EC president that although he had acquiesced to Barroso’s verbal request for him to resign, he had not yet provided him with an official request invoking his prerogatives to make him resign.
“Without such a request, there is no resignation,” Dalli has told Barroso, citing the TEU’s Article 17.6 which lays down that a member of the Commission shall resign if the President so requests.
Dalli is however saying that although he offered his resignation verbally when asked by Barroso, he did not sign a resignation letter which the Brussels political newspaper New Europe says was drafted for him by the Commission’s legal services’ director-general Luis Romero Requena and Barroso’s chief of cabinet Johannes Laitenberger.
Dalli is insisting with Barroso that his official request is necessary, especially since his Commission spokesperson told the press the day after the resignation that it was Dalli who had offered his resignation.
“In our meeting of October 16, 2012 you explicitly demanded (verbally) for my resignation. Considering article 17.6 of the TEU… I replied (also verbally) that I would resign. I did not resign you my resignation in writing as requested by yourself as you did not send me, so far, an official request, invoking your prerogatives as provided by the Treaty.
“Such official request is deemed necessary after the official statement of your spokesperson (repeated several times) in the midday briefing of October 17, 2012, and widely reported in the international media claiming that, ‘I offered my resignation’ as well as in your press release of the day before.
“This is not correct as ‘I did not offer my resignation’ but ‘you demanded for it’.”
Dalli stepped down as commissioner on 16 October after he was read the covering letter from an investigation by the EU’s anti-fraud office OLAF, claiming there was circumstantial evidence that he was aware of an attempt by a Sliema restaurateur, Silvio Zammit, to solicit a bribe from snus producers Swedish Match, ostensibly to reverse an EU-wide ban on snuff, which can only be sold in Sweden. Dalli has denied being aware of Zammit’s advances to the company.
In the resignation letter drafted by the Commission, Dalli would have stepped down “in the interest of defending [his] reputation and of averting any damage to the EU and the Commission” and to avail himself of the necessary time to contest the findings of the OLAF investigation, which would otherwise take away all the energy necessary for him to take care of the health and consumer policy portfolio.
Dalli is now insisting with Barroso that without an official request on his part, “there is no resignation.”
Dalli says he was not allowed a 24 hour request for him to consult his lawyers before vacating the Commission’s offices and was prevented from reading the OLAF report, which is now in the hands of the Maltese Attorney General. He also dubbed the OLAF findings “conjectures”, and said that OLAF director Giovanni Kessler’s statements during his press conference breached his presumption of innocence.
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Reply to Brian Click here to cancel reply
Why does Malta have no stand-up comedians, I was once asked?
Because the politicians are funnier than any comedian could ever be, I replied.
Complete meltdown ! So if not a resignation, then a dismissal; talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
Sad spectacle – when you are pushing 64
Ridiculous, at any age.
I can’t think of a single teenager who’d make an ass of himself like this.
Thirtysomethings on the other hand…..
Dalli hasn’t seen OLAF’s report but knows it’s ‘conjectures’.
Clever dick.
Want to bet that sooner or later Labour newspapers will get hold of OLAF’s report?
Malta and its two cultures.
He’s asking for money.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121022/local/european-commission-politically-untenable-for-dalli-to-stay.442145
‘………In line with rules Mr Dalli will receive an allowance so that he can move back to Malta and will also be paid transitional allowance for a three-year period until he finds another job or retires. This corresponds to 45 per cent of his old salary. His pension will be paid after the transition…’
In other words…. he is still going to be comfy….. but he wont have his 60 million Euro pension he was dreaming about.
No wonder he’s throwing a fit !
Maltastar is running a poll on people’s views regarding Dalli’s resignation.
So far only 19% think he did something wrong. 29% can’t decide and 52% think Dalli is a victim. Labour in a nutshell – representing the amoral side of Malta.
http://i.imgur.com/5AwHk.png
What an embarrassment.
And since when do you call the Commission President ‘Jose Manuel’, if an official letter is being written to him? A basic sense of decency, decor and etiquette doesn’t seem to exist in Dalli’s language.
Goodness, how very appropriate: addressing the letter to “Jose Manuel” and signing off as “John Dalli, Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy”, without the ‘ex’.
What a country bumpkin and a plonker.
Dalli persists in embarrassing Malta and the Maltese government which nominated him, apart from further embarrassing himself.
Dalli, obo of all self-respecting Maltese, PLEASE STOP making a fool of yourself.
http://www.lastampa.it/2012/10/22/blogs/straneuropa/la-stretta-sul-tabacco-ora-f0tkujlgz7zwCATJlPIQtJ/pagina.html
Now the Italians are taking the p#%s out of the Maltese !
They’re not really taking the piss. All they’re saying is that the EU should go ahead with the directive proposal (it’s only a proposal, after all) rather than wait for the new commissioner.
This would prove that Dalli’s forced resignation had nothing to do with an attempt to delay the directive.
Marelli, Prima donna ohra jonqosna – Franco, Jeffrey, Johnny. Qeghdin sew.
Sack him now, please, “Jose Manuel”.
The man has no sense of gravitas.
The man is acting like a cornered rat. He thinks that by doing this, he will land Barroso into trouble once he is acquitted of all charges (which is impossible).
He simply cannot handle the heat he has generated by going to war without an army, strategy or plan.
These shenanigans only add fuel to the guilt fire.
I think that John Dalli is risking a more embarrasing statement by Barroso.
I very much doubt whether Barroso will issue any statement about someone who has no connection whatsoever with the EU or its Commission.
If he is dismissed, he can sue for compensation. If he resigns, he cannot.
Exactly.
No, I don’t think Dalli can claim compensation. Being an EU Commissioner is not a ‘job’ but a political post.
Is there no political/administrational entity who can diplomatically tell him to shut up?
Maybe before Barroso asked Dalli to resign, he should have started the sentence with the famous ‘Allo ‘Allo words ‘Listen to me carefully, I shall say this only once’.
And another one bites the dust!
Next question:
So with Tonio Borg in Brussels who will be the next deputy prime minister. Mario, Simon?
I think that with an election to be held within the next couple of months, Dr Gonzi should not appoint any deputy and leave a fair playing field for his key team members. Hopefully he will not be ill advised on this issue too.
[Daphne – I think the deputy leader is elected, not appointed.]
JPS, as if it matters who’s going to be elected deputy. Do you think I will give my vote to Joseph and his merry men if Simon wins over Mario or if Chris wins over these two?
Don’t make the mistake and believe that whover is deputy will automatically become leader. It doesn’t work that way.
Dalli’s in a hole, but he can’t stop digging.
John Dalli is getting a hole ready for when Joseph Muscat acquires a Sargas plant. Can use it to capture the gas.
Is he not married? He has two daughters, I believe.
I would do the same if I intend to sue the President/EC for unfair dismissal (or forced resignation)…let alone moral damages.
Doesn’t Dalli know that when he is in a hole he should stop digging?
“you demanded for it” – ehe and “it sacked to be deserved”
Jekk dan il-professur hassu li hu qieghed jigi mcahhad mid-drittijiet tieghu u allura l-Kummissjoni Ewropea ma kienitx qeghdha tkun gusta mieghu, ghax ma ghamilx bhal ma jaghmlu haddiema ohra, ghax wara kollox hu haddiem tal-EU bhal hafna ohrajn, “sit-down strike” u ma telaqx minn gol-bini tal- Kummissjoni Ewropea jekk hass li ghandu ragun?
The Treaty of the European Union does not specify that the request to resign has to be in writing. See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:115:0013:0045:EN:PDF
The last paragraph of Article 17(6) says: “A member of the Commission shall resign if the President so requests.” No ifs and buts.
Dalli just needs to shut up and talk to his lawyers.
Dalli should at least take a leaf out of Franco Debono’s book and get a ghost-writer.
Careful, or we’ll get another rant. Do you consider yourself an oratorial troll or do you prefer insufferable groupie?
Experience teaches you to sense who is speaking straight and who is pussyfooting around the truth.
So far Dalli, an innocent victim, has not come out and given the media a full disclosure of the facts as known by him. His methodology is to go on the attack discrediting his accusers while keeping a brake on what information he releases.
His argument, which Matthew Vella accepted without blinking was that OLAF’s admission that they only had “circumstantial evidence” was equivalent to “evidenza bla prova”. You do not have to be a legal man to know that you can be found guilty of crimes on the basis of circumstantial evidence. Murderers are sentenced to life on such evidence when it is so persuasive that it leaves no reasonable doubt as to guilt. So why speak such rubbish?
Dalli has not adopted a defence of disclosure but a strategy of what seems so far as “you\ve got nothin’ on me.” The resignation red herring is nothing more than an attempt to further denigrate his accusers.
Its a pity. An innocent man who has been stitched up will eagerly admit to a lack of judgement as to the dangers of his post and that, although morally innocent, miserably failed to protect the reputation of his office by following the old golden rule of keeping friends at a safe distance away from your office.
This failure alone merits that he should accept his resignation as most appropriate.
First thing that struck me: if the letter was addressed to ‘Jose Manuel’ it should have been signed ‘John’ not ‘John Dalli’.
Given the contents, however, a formal ‘Mr President’ would have been more appropriate.
[Daphne – What shocks me about people like this is not that they grow up without learning protocol, manners and correct form, for which they are not to blame, but that they determinedly refuse to learn by observation or instruction because they don’t think it necessary, for which they ARE to blame.]
What is further shocking is that the people advising them – presumably their lawyers – are equally badly educated.
What is EVEN more shocking is how they rose to their lofty position in spite of all this.
Mr. Baxxter, we all know that many incompetent people are kicked upstairs. I think there is a dictum which says that the more one rises in life, the more one shows his incompetence.
I will always regret having learned how to spell.
Lino Spiteri wrote this morning that one has to be mad to think that Dalli would be party to such a demand.
Which can also mean that the demand was not that exaggerated and he expected him to ask for much, much more. Incidentally I don’t recall Lino Spiteri defending Dalli on the Daewoo scandal or on the HSBC deal. In fact if I recall correctly he was on the offensive.
Spiteri invariably sits on the fence.
However he dangles his legs to one side or the other as he deems necessary or convenient.
Joseph cannot.
‘He added that to make things worse the government has already paid for the extension in advance even though the power plant is not operative.’
A lie, pure and simple, uttered by one who, it seems, doesn’t even have a clue how contracts work. According to Joseph, a contractor is expected to procure, deliver, install and hand over a power station before any payment. Didn’t he say he wouldn’t delve into this sort of crap four years ago?
‘He added that the PN has lots its raison d’être and is unrecognisable to former PN loyalists because a small clique hijacked the party.’
Don’t be so concerned Joseph, do we know, perhaps you can compare notes and name the individuals forming the clique. I mean, how do you insist on thinking the same isn’t intent on turning onto your movement now?
Even Maltatoday has you by the balls, indeed, why steer clear?
How the hell does someone become EU commissioner when he has such a poor standard of English? I mean, how does this guy even make himself understood?
I’m Maltese and even I had to re-read this letter twice.
I am now beginning to feel sorry for him.
Barroso gave him the option of getting kicked out politely.
Now he is asking Barroso to kick him out literally.
This man is in total and absolute denial.
Where are his advisers, assuming he has any left?
” … circumstantial evidence” (OLAF’s description of its evidence) = conjectures (syn) not probative evidence.
” … the case has not affected its decision-making process”. = a blatant OLAF lie.
Dalli’s forced resignation has interrupted the “decision-making process” of the anti-SNUS legislation. That was precisely what Swedish Match wanted. As we Maltese say “OLAF qdiet lil Swedish Match mill-koxxa”.
I said it before and will say it again. Even if it was a case of entrapment, Dalli wasn’t bright enough to see it coming.
Forgive him that as well. The second, not the minute, that he realised something was wrong he should have acted very differently to what he did.
Give him the benefit of the doubt right up till 11th. July when he was summoned by OLAF. If he had nothing to hide he should have informed the Prime Minister and acted in collaboration with him and with Barroso. I would have gone public and distanced myself from the businessman and take any other advice given to me by the government of my country.
Only then would I have supported him.
I did not say anywhere that Dalli was bright, neither did I ever support him. I am against conspiracies by the tobacco industry, the associated taint of entrapment, the lies and mystification that surrounds this case, all to Malta’s detriment and to the benefit of tobacco companies.
It now transpires that the Malta government knew about the investigation as soon as Dalli did and Dalli knew this. He cannot be accused of hiding anything from the prime minister.
If John Dalli wants a letter from Mr Barroso to sack him, please someone serve it to him on a silver platter.
FIRE HIM so that he loses his ‘transitional allowance’ and nice pension. Isn’t it that what he wants? Give him a nice scolding in public and send him off home with a big DUNCE on his head.
Did you see how he retained the designation of Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy in his letter to Barroso? The last time he published a letter written from his Portomaso apartment he signed off as a Cittadin Malti.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121022/local/dalli-writes-to-barroso.442136
The next news item will tell us how Dalli asked for the resignation of Barroso.
Guilty or otherwise, Dalli has lost Barroso’s (read the entire EU commission’s) trust.
This reason alone should have resulted in his wilful, quick and dignified exit. Guilty or otherwise, he has now proven that he never had the right credentials to become a commissioner.
Article 17.6 of the Treaty does not lay down the form of the resignation.
It merely states that “A member of the Commission shall resign if the President so requests.”
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2010:083:0013:0046:EN:PDF
At this point, since we know that:
1. President Barroso asked John Dalli to resign within 30 (or was it 45) minutes or else he will be sacked. John Dalli himself said this and we can take his word for it.
2. John Dalli is now claiming that there is no resignation because he did not write a resignation letter to President Barroso.
This means that Mr. Dalli has been sacked.
What’s required at this stage is for President Barroso to send a letter of reply to Mr. Dalli telling him the truth, i.e. that he had been sacked.
The following article appearing on The Times’ website seems to redimension the whole saga, and has it very differently from your version.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121022/local/european-commission-politically-untenable-for-dalli-to-stay.442145
[Daphne – How so?]
Could Eddy Privitera and lost in translation, Franco, please make some room in their padded loony cell for Mr Dalli?
Just seen the news. The judicial letter mentioned by John Dalli, does not exist. Mr. Dalli please explain.
Brilliant. What the hell is he trying to do?
“Regardless of the contents of the OLAF report which nobody but the Attorney-General will see”
I believe that we have a right to know its contents… That is, if we really do believe in transperancy and accountability.
[Daphne – Absolutely not. Reports of investigations should never be made public when they lead up to possible criminal prosecution. There is a difference between the public’s right to know and the public’s wish to know. Trials are public, but investigations are not. For a start, by putting all the investigation details into the public domain, you undermine the prosecution and even the investigators themselves.]
@Daphne
Your reply makes so much sense – I therefore apologise for the miswording in my previous comment.
What I really meant to say was the following; Will the AG publish all the facts if John Dalli is found guilty in breach of ethics?
[Daphne – The report will be made public only if either one of the two is prosecuted. Then it becomes part of the evidence, which is perforce made public.]
Since we are talking about arrogant idiots, I would like to share with you an incident that I witnessed this morning at the law courts.
As Dr. Tony Abela was entering the court house this morning he refused to hand in his loose possessions (mobile,keys etc) to the lady at the x-ray machine and just walked through the security gate, and on doing so, one of the guards tried to stop him, only to be told off.
He shouted at the guard and called him ‘kiesah, kemm int kiesah’ repeatedly, to an extent that the two gentlemen accompanying the Labour Deputy Leader had to quiet him down.
Another one who isn’t quite up to snuff.
How embarrassing Johnny has no shame he is acting like a little school boy expelled by the headmaster. He has disgraced himself and the entire nation.
“Mr Bailly added that the Commission respected the presumption of innocence. There was no evidence of illegal behaviour by Mr Dalli since the legal aspect would be decided by the Attorney General in Malta.
“However Mr Dalli’s presence on the European Commission was politically untenable on the basis of the report, particularly in view of the unofficial meetings held with the tobacco industry involving the Maltese intermediary without reason, the spokesman said.
That had cast a doubt on the integrity of the decision-making process and thus it was politically untenable for Mr Dalli to stay.”
http://www.timesofmalta.com/…/european-commission-politically-untenabl...
For me, this sums it up, regardless whether there was anything illegal or cirminal.
Some time ago Dalli mentioned his “prison” in Brussels. Barroso must have pitied him and set him free.
I must emphasize that I do not challenge in any way the veracity of OLAF’s admission that the attempted bribery did not affect John Dalli’s personal decision-making process.
I am saying that, nevertheless, the case was grossly affected when Swedish Match, acting through OLAF, succeeded to interrupt the legislative process intended to further restrict the spread of the tobacco menace. Therefore it would be a lie to suggest that the decision-making process was not affected at all. It was affected but the culprit was the tobacco industry, not Dalli.
The decision-making process was not affected until Dalli was there and more precisely unti Dalli and his team finished their draft or whatever in February. That is what OLAF said.
It is only now, after the whole thing blew up that Swedish Match are understandably availing themselves of the opportunity to insist on their cause.
From my 20+ years experience working in private industry, the guilty person usually makes most noise in a bid to rally popular support. The injured party tries hard not to embarrass him and hides the whole affair.
The form of address says it all. Jose Manuel? Indeed.
Not even “Dear Jose Manuel”…
[Daphne – You wouldn’t, in a letter of that nature.]
Well, in this case Jose Manuel proved extremely dear.
It is a real pity that President Barroso did not give John Dalli 24 hours to resign.
It would have given Saviour the time to produce a special overnight edition of Malta Today, with the headline “Dalligate.”
Dear Daphne,
As a regular reader of this site I know that you are not particularly a huge fan of Tonio Borg, could this (in your opinion) be another huge mistake by the PM and what would be the price that Malta eventually have to pay after this. In my opinion, I just hope that Tonio Borg will fail the compulsory grilling by the MEP`s as I admit that I agree with Franco on this one that he he is the worst possible choice.
Let’s hope they grill him on Libya.
Barroso can always make it ‘official’ and fire John Dalli, in writing in order to remove any doubt.
I still think that the whole affair was badly executed by the higher echelon of the EU.
While the consequences of the alleged influence peddling is very much of public interest, why should not the evidence leading to OLAF’s conclusion, in order to dispel any doubts?
The act of firing an EU Commissioner is a very serious matter for whatever reason, but certainly more serious if an alleged attempt to bribe or receive a bribe on behalf of a Commissioner is proven.
It is easy to oversimplify a complicated issue such as this one, by cutting corners which will not do any justice to the one on the receiving end and neither to the credibility of the institution which fired him.
John Dalli managed to achieve what others thought impossible: to be shameful and shameless at the same time