Commissioner Dalli's house in Tripoli: nothing out of the ordinary!
(BRUSSELS2) The (Maltese) Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, John Dalli, apparently still has a home in Libya (in Tripoli). And on the side of the European Commission, we find this quite normal. "It is not prohibited at this stage to own a house in Libya or elsewhere" said the commissioner's spokesman. But he doesn't want to say more. "I refer you to the declaration of interests. No I know, not the size of the house. I think the commissioner said what needed to be said."
We will therefore know neither the size nor the value of this house, nor especially the date or the conditions of acquisition of this house. The spokesperson also did not want to answer whether the commissioner still had other assets (joint venture company in Libya). Note that the UN resolution 1973 froze all economic assets or resources that could be made available to the Libyan authorities (§19). A priori the possession of a house can be subject to a tax which must be transferred to the Libyan authorities, even more if it is about assets in a mixed company. Etc...
By leaving these elements in the dark and refusing to answer basic questions, the Commission gives credence to the idea that everything would not be as simple and normal as indicated. It's a pity for a commissioner who has already committed a political "blunder" on the Libyan leader (*).
NB: the Commissioner's declaration of interests is very brief. She just mentions in the "properties" section "House in Tripoli, Libya" (download here).
(Update Wed.) Commissioner Dalli's spokesperson wanted to send me a little email that deserves publication: " I want to say that the tone of this "article" is really questionable. (...) A commissioner also has a right to a private life. A page on the Europa site gives access to all the Commissioners' declarations of interest, and the various documents are similar there (this in response to the expression "brief" in the ps). (...) A Commission spokesperson is not a real estate agent who is supposed to explain to you the size of the house, the number of bathrooms and the orientation of the property in question. In short, in a word as in 100, the "post" in question is grotesque. »
I will let the readers freely make up their own minds. But, for my part, I do not find it entirely illegitimate to know the conditions of acquisition and the amount of a house located in a country which is not known to offer a permanent vacation to the ordinary politician. This therefore confirms that a frank and transparent explanation is necessary. MAM's (Michèle Alliot-Marie) trip was also private... originally!
(*) Read : Malta delays the process of additional sanctions against Libya
It's true, finally, you see evil everywhere! Tripoli is however an ideal vacation spot. As proof, this is where Henri Guaino chose to spend the last New Year. So many beautiful minds in this well-known seaside resort, it must be linked to the exceptional and so stimulating climate of intellectual freedom that reigned there before agitators sadly come to put an end to it all.
It is curious that some Commission spokespersons have a habit of speaking with contempt to journalists. It is true that we are less brilliant than them, that we earn three or four times less and that we have badly cut suits when we don't wear jeans, what a horror. That must explain Frédéric Vincent's tone.