MEPs demand ‘secret’ EU cooperation agreements with big tobacco

Members of the European Parliament in the budgetary control committee have written to the European Commission to provide the parliament with all documents and correspondence concerning cooperation agreements the Commission has with the tobacco industry. The request was made on Tuesday, two days before the same MEPs held a "damp squib hearing" with OLAF chief Giovanni Kessler, EUobserver.com reported on Thursday, on the investigation that was conducted on former European commissioner for health John Dalli.

MEPs from the budgetary control committee want access to all documents concerning cooperation agreements between the EC and Imperial Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International, British-American Tobacco, and Philip Morris International, all signed between 2004 and 2010. "All documents and correspondence concerning these agreements are of special importance to evaluate and analyse the possibility of conflicts of interest of the Commission emerging from those agreements," MEPs from all parliamentary groups said in the latter, "especially in the light of Article 12.3 of the JTI-Agreement, 12.4 of the BAT-Agreement, and Article 11 of the ITL Agreement."

"We demand comprehensive information on the relationship to the tobacco industry, in full disclosure," the MEPs write. The same MEPs met OLAF chief Giovanni Kessler on Thursday, who on his part said the resignation of former supervisory committee president Christiaan Timmermans was unrelated to the Dalli investigation. In comments to MaltaToday, German MEP Inge Graessle (EPP) said the allegations that had cost John Dalli his job - that he was aware of an attempt by a Maltese businessman to solicit a bribe to influence tobacco laws that Dalli was reviewing - are not yet clear enough.

"I wonder how the work was done and what the conclusions were that led to the resignation - this for me is relevant: what is the criminal act at the heart of the investigation? We still don't know, and I'm interested in the work that the police will do on the investigation." "I'm sure a commissioner from a bigger member state would not have been dealt with that way," Graessle said referring to the instant resignation of Dalli on the strength of the covering letter accompanying OLAF's report. "We should also care about small member states."