Critical report on Olaf's Dalli investigation officially published

Corporate Europe Observatory, an influential transparency NGO has published a copy of a critical report by the EU Anti fraud agency Olaf which questioned the legality of the investigation that led to the resignation of Maltese Commissioner John Dalli. The confidential report by the Olaf’s supervisory committee expressed serious concern particularly about the way the agency obtained the mobile phone records of Maltese suspects in the Dalligate investigation. The report had already been leaked to the press back in May of last year. In fact, not much is new. However, it has only been officially released now to Corporate Europe Observatory by the Supervisory Committee after it verified the legality of releasing the document. More importantly, it comes as the European Court of Justice is today set to hear the case for unfair dismissal instituted by Mr Dalli in which both he and his former boss, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso are expected to testify. The NGO had filed the request in February 2013 and got a reply on Friday. A few days earlier, one of the committee’s members, Austrian Herbert Bösch said Olaf had moved to block the publication of the report. “We decided at the...