Ganley: EU parliament trying to 'stymie' Libertas party bid

Irish businessman and Libertas leader Declan Ganley has accused the European parliament of blocking the group's attempt to become a European political party.

Hours ahead of a decision by parliament's bureau on whether to grant Libertas official status as a pan-European party, Ganley said he believed the parliament was looking to find some technicality to disqualify the anti-Lisbon group's application entitling them to €200,000 in funding.

"They are going to disallow us to be what they call a pan-European party, at least that what I've been tipped off is the case," Ganley told theParliament.com.

"I was also told that very significant efforts were made in the legal and accounting departments to find some technical reason to disqualify us, which they didn't do and which those departments did not go along with, and so they had to do it politically."
The bureau, parliament's key decision-making body, put on hold a verdict on Libertas' application at its meeting on Wednesday night, saying that it needed more time to clarify the rules on establishing pan-European parties.

However Ganley told this website during an interview at Libertas' new offices in Brussels that he didn't care whether the European parliament recognised them as a pan-European party.

"I don't care if they recognise us or not. The fact is that I do recognise what's wrong with them and I do recognise that they are anti-democratic. We are coming here to Brussels, whether they like it or not."

Funding

British EPP deputy Jim Nicholson, a member of parliament's bureau, confirmed that the body had delayed its decision on funding being awarded to Libertas.

Nicholson, who attended Wednesday night's meeting, said that parliament's president Hans-Gert Pöttering and the assembly's secretary general Harald Romer received letters from two parliamentarians dissociating themselves from Libertas.

Estonian MP Igor Grazin and Bulgarian MP Mincho Kuminev were both said to have endorsed Libertas' application for pan-European party status, but in the letter both denied doing this.

In their letters, both deny ever giving their support to the anti-Lisbon treaty party.

Nicholson told this website, "The bureau decided to delay a decision on this issue until their next meeting in Strasbourg in March. Among those present, there was unanimity on this issue.

"It was also decided that we should again at the basis on which EU funds are allocated to political parties. It could be that, in future, funds will be allocated only on the basis of the support a group has from political parties rather than individuals.

"However, this will not come into effect until the next legislature, not the current one."

Nicholson added, "I must say that this issue of Libertas has now descended into farce and I would have thought it would take something of a miracle for Mr Ganley to come up with the minimum number of signatories [seven] in order to qualify for EU funds."

Another bureau member, French Greens MEP Gerard Onesta, said he believed Libertas' application should now be suspended indefinitely.

He said, "There was a deadline for which all applications for EU funds would be considered and this deadline has now passed. It would be easy for them to come up with another couple of names but given that Libertas failed to meet this deadline that should be the end of the matter.

"However, I am no legal expert and we will have to wait to see what parliament's legal services say on the issue."

Challenges

But Ganley, in a direct reference to recent comments from ALDE group leader Graham Watson that one of the challenges facing the parliament in the upcoming European elections was to "stymie" critics, said parliament's behaviour towards Libertas was "disgusting".

"They are trying to stymie the democratic process, by doing things that they think will disable Libertas from being able to turn the lights on in these institutions and bring transparency and accountability to their proceedings, which is of course, the last thing they want.

"I'm not seeking their approval, I'm not seeking their benediction, Libertas is seeking a mandate from the voters of Europe to come in and do away with, and change exactly this type of underhanded behaviour.

"What they are doing is really serious, and actually helps us expose the type of behaviour and things that are wrong with what's going on here in Brussels.

"The fact that these people are anti-democrats is something that voters across Europe need to be aware of and these people need to be exposed for the dishonest people that they are, and we are exposing them.

"I do think once voters understand what the issues are, and what is being done in their name under the umbrella of something as innocuous sounding as the Lisbon Treaty, I feel they are going to be very, very annoyed, as their were in Ireland."

Elections

Pressed on whether the anti-Lisbon group will look to broaden its single issue identity ahead of the elections, Ganley said that Libertas would soon be unveiling a series of messages in the "hope that the truth of what we are saying gets filtered through the fog and that people hear about it and make their own decision".

Specifically Ganley said Libertas would focus on the recession, small businesses and the democratic accountability of the EU institutions.

Ganley also accused the European commission of being "dysfunctional" and a "tyranny of mediocrity" in its handling of the economic crisis.

"[Brussels] tyranny of mediocrity has got us exactly in the economic mess we are in, and by June, Europe is going to be in the midst of an economic hurricane. The policies and the so-called leaders that have got us into this position are not capable of getting us out of it," he added.

"The commission is dysfunctional…voters have no idea about what's going on in the commission, what the process of initiation and production of laws and regulations is. Democracy has got to be brought into those corridors.

"If we get a mandate, we will propose that we bring democratic accountability into the commission, either by the direct election of commissioners, or by having them voted in by [national] parliaments."

Ganley reiterated that Libertas still intends to run candidates from all 27 EU member states and will look to produce some kind of party manifesto or policy document following a group get-together in Rome in March.

And he said that the campaign would be run purely under the Libertas banner. Ganley had previously sought to form alliances with other political parties across Europe. A political party dedicated to campaigning against the treaty was recently launched in the Czech Republic, but its leader Petr Mach ruled out adopting the Libertas brand.

"We will go into [the European parliament] as a party and we will be running Libertas candidates, not coalitions, and take our seats as members of Libertas. That's the only way we can be effective", said Ganley.

However he remained tight-lipped on whether he will personally stand as a candidate in Ireland.

"The only way I will announce my candidacy is if I am going to be in a position to do a really effective job. When I have done enough across the EU to know that we have a first class team in place, then I will decide."

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