The European Ombudsman urges the Commission to release hidden documents on the Dalligate scandal

Following a complaint made by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) about the European Commission's secrecy in the Dalligate scandal [1], the European Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, has today published her draft opinion that the Commission should publicly release two letters and two internal notes concerning the resignation of former Commissioner John Dalli.

Access to these documents to CEO was refused by the Commission, with arguments that the Ombudsman has now called “not convincing”. In its complaint, CEO had accused the Commission of secrecy, the selective release of documents and failure to fulfil its obligations under EU transparency legislation (Regulation 1049/2001).

On 26 October 2012, CEO requested access to “all documents related to Commissioner Dalli’s resignation over the issues covered in the OLAF investigation, including all minutes (and other notes) of meetings, all correspondence (including by email), both internal and external, and any other documents held by the Commission on these matters.”

CEO's Olivier Hoedeman said "Making these documents available would shed further light on the biggest lobbying scandal within the EU institutions to the date, a scandal that still today remains surrounded in mystery to the general public. We hope the European Commission ends its secrecy soon and follows the Ombudsman's draft recommendation".

Notes

[1] The acrimonious departure of the European Health Commissioner John Dalli in October 2012 followed an investigation by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) which had been prompted by a complaint from tobacco company Swedish Match. The firm alleged that an associate of Mr Dalli (Silvio Zammit) had offered to set up meetings with the Commissioner, with a view to changing the Tobacco Products Directive in the company’s favour, in return for €60 million. For more comprehensive information see: http://corporateeurope.org/lobbycracy/2013/10/see-no-evil-hear-no-evil-s...