John Dalli

John Dalli (2011)

John Dalli (born October 5, 1948 in Qormi ) is a conservative Maltese politician and former European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection .

Life

After school, John Dalli worked and learned at Malta Drydocks , which funded his studies at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology. He completed his correspondence course at an institute in the UK as a Chartered Accountant .

Dalli worked for a Maltese advertising agency and the largest textile factory on the island, for which he held managerial positions until 1981. From 1977 to 1979, Dalli worked for the company in Brussels.

John Dalli is married to Josette Dalli (née Callus), with whom he has two daughters.

Political career

In 1971, John Dalli joined the youth movement of the Maltese Nationalist Party and remained on the board until 1977, when he went to Brussels for his company.

1979 to 1981 he led his party's election campaign. His own candidacy was unsuccessful. From 1987 to 1990 he was Parliamentary State Secretary for Industry , from 1990 to 1992 Minister of Economics and from 1992 to 1996 Finance Minister. From 1998 to 2004, Dalli was Minister of Finance and Economy . In 2004, Dalli became Minister for Foreign Affairs and Investment Promotion . From 2008 to 2010 he was Minister for Social Policy . After his appointment as EU Commissioner in February 2010, Dalli resigned as Minister and Member of Parliament.

From 1987 to 1996 and 1998 to 2004, Dalli was the chairman of a Libyan- Maltese commission responsible for developing relations between the two countries.

EU commissioner

In February 2010, Dalli became a member of the European Commission under José Manuel Barroso , where he took over the health and consumer protection department as EU commissioner . As a result of investigations by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), Dalli resigned as EU Commissioner on October 16, 2012 following allegations of corruption.

Political positions and controversies

In his first official acts as EU Commissioner in March 2010, Dalli showed himself to be an outspoken supporter of genetic engineering in food production. This was in contradiction to Germany's consumer minister Ilse Aigner , who wanted to prevent the strict EU guidelines for genetically modified food from being relaxed. Dalli advocated lifting the ban on the import of genetically modified food into the European Union.

In May 2010, Dalli campaigned for the approval of thrombin obtained from pig blood , with which small pieces of meat are glued together to form larger ones, for meat production, as this is not harmful to health. However, his move was blocked by the European Parliament.

In October 2010, Dalli campaigned, among other things, for a European tobacco product directive to reduce nicotine dependence in the European Union .

In June 2012, as EU consumer protection commissioner, Dalli spoke out in favor of the approval of the (partly) controversial " Roundup Ready" soy seeds from Monsanto , although the sprayed plant toxin glyphosate is (partly) suspected of damaging the genetic make-up and causing deformities respectively. According to the NGO "Testbiotech", the approval would also have violated EU law, as the residues of the spray were not taken into account in the risk assessment of the seeds.

Also in June 2012, Dalli, who is also responsible for EU animal welfare, came into conflict with the initiators of the EU-wide animal welfare campaign 8hours . The campaign initiated by the Danish EU parliamentarian Dan Jørgensen collected over 1.1 million signatures across the EU by the beginning of 2012 to limit the transport times of farm animals to a maximum of 8 hours. At the same time, 395 EU parliamentarians and thus the majority of EU parliamentarians signed the corresponding written declaration 49/2011. When the representatives of European animal welfare organizations and EU parliamentarians presented the list of signatures on June 7, 2012, Dalli promised a new EU bill for 2014 to protect animals on transport. Although his statements were recorded by a camera, a short time later Dalli completely distanced himself from his statements. For this reason, the 8-hours initiators held a large animal welfare conference on September 28, 2012 in Dalli's home country, Malta. The pressure on Dalli regarding the demand for an 8-hour transport time limit increased in the following weeks.

In September 2012, in Malta, Dalli tried to tackle unspecified defamation of himself in online blogs. As the background to the defamation, Dalli suspected his possible candidacy as party leader of the Maltese Partit Nazzjonalista .

As a result of investigations by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), Dalli resigned as Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection on October 16, 2012. The investigation was preceded by a complaint from the Swedish tobacco manufacturer Swedish Match . A Maltese entrepreneur is said to have offered the company to get in touch with Dalli for money in order to influence EU tobacco legislation. Dalli denied all allegations. The Maltese police said that the OLAF report contained only indications of malpractice and did not contain solid evidence necessary to initiate proceedings. In 2004, Dalli had resigned as Maltese foreign minister after allegations of corruption.

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Official website. In: johndalli.eu. Archived from the original on October 9, 2011 ; accessed on May 12, 2009 .
John Dalli (biography). In: MaltaToday. February 8, 2004, accessed May 12, 2009 .
Meet the minister. In: Ministry for Social Policy. April 18, 2008, archived from the original on July 5, 2007 ; accessed on May 12, 2009 .
Official EU website: John Dalli - Background. Retrieved October 17, 2012 .
Handelsblatt: People: Dalli, John. October 17, 2012, accessed October 17, 2012 .