Medieuppgift: Tidigare EU-kommissionärs tobaksförbindelser avslöjade

I oktober 2012 tvingades den dåvarande maltesiske hälsokommissionären John Dalli under oklara omständigheter avgå efter anklagelser om att han gått tobaksindustrins vägnar när EU skulle ta fram nya regler kring snus och cigaretter.

Den maltesiska undersökande journalisten Daphne Caruana Galizia säger på sin blogg nu ha hittat ett samband mellan Dalli och tobaksföretaget Philip Morris. Enligt henne ska Philip Morris ha betalt den nuvarande maltesiske centralbankschefen Alfred Mifsud motsvarande 25 000 kronor i månaden för att få denne att påverka Dallis arbete med att ta fram ett nytt förslag om tobaksregler i EU.

”Mifsuds enda uppdrag var att förmedla information och meddelanden mellan John Dalli och Philip Morris International eftersom Dalli inte kunde ha privata och oregistrerade möten med tobaksjätten”, skriver Caruana Galizia.

Efter att Dalli fick gå 2012 ska Philip Morris ha avsagt sig samarbetet med mellanhanden Mifsud. Detta tillbakavisas dock av honom.

Enligt Alfred Mifsud, som vid tillfället sålde investeringsprodukter, handlade mötena, som ska ha ägt rum två gånger i veckan och utanför kontorstid, mellan honom och John Dalli om att hälsokommissionären ville ha ”råd om eurokrisen”.

Uppdatering

Nedan publicerar vi ett genmäle från John Dalli på engelska som han skickat Europaportalen efter vår publicering.

”You have been fed this information by […] Daphne Caruana Galizia which, rather than being a respected journalist is known in Malta as the Queen of Bile, because her “investigations” are nothing but pieces of information which she is given by interested person and which she distorts and spins to attack her hate victims and anybody that does not push her political interests.  As to being independent, a precursory view of her writings show her excessive bias.

I fail to see by what stretch of the imaginative and manipulative gymnastics you come to the conclusion contained in your heading.

What are the links that I am supposed to have had with Philip Morris?  And if I had these links would Philip Morris have gone to such an effort to use a small time entrepreneur in Malta to make contact with me – offering him payment – through their Joint Venture Partner Swedish Match?

Would this not show that all the effort of the Tobacco Lobby to influence me drew a complete blank so much so that they finally had to resort to an elaborated setup which found the ready ear of Jose Manoel Barroso, through his friend Michel Petit?

That I was visiting Mifsud’s offices twice a week is a blatant lie. I could have visited his office twice or three times and Mr. Mifsud gave the reason for these visits.  The bloggist published this reply but you did not.

If you ask OLAF, they would tell you that when they went through my office at night and without my knowledge in the course of their investigation of the SNUS report, they found a report which Alfred Mifsud had sent to me about the currency crisis that Europe was passing through at the time.  I used this report to prepare myself for the discussions we used to have in college on this biting crisis.

This collaborates Mr. Mifsud’s statement.”