EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy John Dalli’s resignation yesterday highlights the need for stronger measures to regulate EU lobbying to rule out the risk of privileged access and political corruption in EU decision-making.

Dalli’s resignation came about after a report by anti-fraud agency OLAF failed to clear him of corruption allegations. The case centers around Silvio Zammit, a Maltese businessman and politician from Dalli’s party who offered tobacco producer Swedish Match to use his access to Dalli to influence a revision of EU rules on tobacco products. OLAF’s report did not find conclusive evidence of the direct participation of Dalli but it did argue that he was “aware of these events”. Dalli denies this and claims his resignation is in order to be better able to contest the claims.

While there are many question marks around what exactly happened, there is little surprising in the circumstances around the case. The European Commission is the focus of intense lobbying and many business lobbyists benefit from easy access and close contacts. This opens the door to the potential for corruption.

The transparency and ethics reforms introduced in recent years have not been enough to prevent such situations from arising. This new scandal should be a wake-up call for the Commission to finally start treating these issues seriously. Only effective transparency and ethics rules can help discourage undue influence, including corruption.

Corporate Europe Observatory believes urgent action is needed in five areas: