About Nikolaj Nielsen

EUobserver reporter Nikolaj Nielsen sheds new light on the Dalli lobbying scandal, which, by Barroso's own admission, threatened to bring down the EU executive, but which is not over yet.

In her office on the 15th floor in the Altiero Spinelli wing of the European Parliament, German centre-right MEP Ingeborg Graessle shuffles some papers on a table and then pours two glasses of water.

While Silvio Zammit risks jail time and former EU health commission John Dalli is still under investigation, the witness to the prosecution, Gayle Kimberley, has largely escaped scrutiny.

The EU’s anti-fraud office has no evidence in its report nailing Dalli and his accomplices on bribes which never exchanged hands in any case.

John Dalli claims that his tough stand against tobacco as EU health commissioner led the industry to pull levers inside the European Commission to get him ousted from office.

John Dalli, flanked by his lawyers, enters the blue-carpeted chamber at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and faces the panel of five black-robed judges.