Europe’s Top Health Official Quits, and the Bloc Has a Mystery on Its Hands [1]

Thierry Charlier/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
John Dalli, at a news conference on Wednesday, said he had been forced to resign.

BRUSSELS — The top health official for the European Union [2] suddenly resigns. His plans to place marketing curbs on tobacco companies are put aside. The offices of antitobacco groups are burglarized. There is talk of cash payments of tens of millions of dollars by Big Tobacco.

The swirl of rumors here around events inevitably called “Tobaccogate” has a noirish tone that is unfamiliar in Brussels, the European Union capital better known for turgid debates about fish quotas. And much still remains mysterious and tangled in unproven accusations.