Tuesday

30th May 2023

EU commissioner goes off-message on Gaddafi

Maltese EU commissioner John Dalli has made comments which appear to support Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi and which flatly contradict those of Mr Dalli's boss, Jose Manuel Barroso.

Speaking to press at an event organised by the Malta Business Bureau on Friday (5 March) morning in Malta, the EU health commissioner, who has a long history of business links with Libya, said he "didn't think [he] had the right, or anyone else, to make a statement on whether he [Gaddafi] should step down."

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

He added: "I think Gaddafi should make his own decisions. He has the assessment of the people, as he has said on TV ... I think Gaddafi has made the first attempt towards conciliation."

Mr Dalli said he is "in no way" a defender of Gaddafi and condemned the violence in Libya. But he then repeated the Libyan leader's own line that outside forces are manipulating media coverage of protests.

"The US admitted that they have lost the race for information in Libya - this, and the way information is getting out, is problematic," he said. "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."

Mr Dalli's comments flatly contradict the position taken by Mr Barroso in a speech in Brussels two days ago.

"It is time for him [Gaddafi] to go and give the country back to the people of Libya," Mr Barroso said. "It is our duty to say to the Arab people that we are on their side."

A Dalli spokesman told this website that he had not seen the Friday morning quotes, but that anything Mr Dalli might have told local press in Malta is not necessarily his official view as an EU commissioner.

The 62-year-old Mr Dalli has built up close personal links with the Libyan regime over the past two decades.

In 2004 he set up John Dalli & Associates, a consultancy firm which specialised in opening doors for Maltese businessmen in Libya and which had an office in Tripoli. He also worked as a director in the Azizia Glass Manufacturing Company (AGMC), which has a multi-million-euro factory in the north African dictatorship.

He quit AGMC and John Dalli & Associates when he became a Maltese minister in 2008. But he kept John Dalli & Associates in the family by handing the business to his daughters and he still owns a house in Tripoli.

In his own online biography posted in 2008 he spoke about his work for the Libya Maltese Joint Commission in the 1987 to 1996 and 1998 to 2004 periods when Libya was under UN sanctions.

He said that "levels of economic activities between the two countries increased" despite the UN measures. He added that he had "established a strong network at the political and executive levels of that country."

At another business event in Valetta in 2007, he said: "Malta had served as a gateway between Libya and the outside world during the days of international sanctions ... Business with Libya means business in Libya and face-to-face contact is essential."

MEPs to urge block on Hungary taking EU presidency in 2024

"This will be the first time a member state that is under the Article 7 procedure will take over the rotating presidency of the council," French Green MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, the key lawmaker on Hungary, warned.

European Parliament scales back luxury MEP pension fund

The European Parliament's Bureau, a political body composed of the president and its vice-presidents, decided to slash payouts from the fund by 50 percent, freeze automatic indexations, and increase the pension age from 65 to 67.

WhoisWho? Calls mount to bring back EU directory

NGOs and lobbyists slammed the EU commission for removing contact details of non-managerial staff from its public register, arguing that the institution is now less transparent.

Exclusive

MEP luxury pension held corporate assets in tax havens

While the European Parliament was demanding a clamp down on tax havens, many of its own MEPs were using their monthly office allowances to finance a luxury pension scheme that held corporate assets in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and elsewhere.

Column

What a Spanish novelist can teach us about communality

In a world where cultural clashes and sectarianism seems to be on the increase, Spanish novelist Javier Cercas (b.1962) takes the opposite approach. He cherishes both life in the big city and in the countryside.

Opinion

Poland and Hungary's ugly divorce over Ukraine

What started in 2015 as a 'friends-with-benefits' relationship between Viktor Orbán and Jarosław Kaczyński, for Hungary and Poland, is ending in disgust and enmity — which will not be overcome until both leaders leave.

Latest News

  1. Germany unsure if Orbán fit to be 'EU president'
  2. EU Parliament chief given report on MEP abuse 30 weeks before sanction
  3. EU clashes over protection of workers exposed to asbestos
  4. EU to blacklist nine Russians over jailing of dissident
  5. Russia-Ukraine relations the Year After the war
  6. Why creating a new legal class of 'climate refugees' is a bad idea
  7. Equatorial Guinea: a 'tough nut' for the EU
  8. New EU ethics body and Moldova conference This WEEK

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  2. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us