Declan Ganley’s Libertas, the Irish thorn in the EU’s side

Declan Ganley helped throw the EU into chaos with his opposition to the Lisbon treaty, and now the Irish millionaire hopes his Libertas party can strike at the heart of the 27-nation bloc in next week’s European Parliament elections.

Libertas intends to field more than 600 candidates in the June 4-7 elections after reaching agreement with a range of parties across Europe — although its partners have been dismissed as “pond life” by one Irish minister.

Ganley believes his new party is on the verge of a major breakthrough in the polls, where an estimated 375 million voters across the European Union will elect 736 parliamentary deputies for a five-year term.

“Something is happening, all across Europe. An old force is pulling us together once more. Democracy. People are coming together to take Europe back for themselves,” he said in a speech in Rome on May 1.

The word “democracy” is never far from the lips of the 40-year-old who has become a real thorn in the side of the European Union.

Ganley says he was shocked into action after reading the Lisbon Treaty several years ago.

The treaty was supposed to give an expanded EU a new decision-making structure — but it only gave him headaches. “I was horrified,” he said.

In his eyes, “the bureaucrats” of Brussels were trying to impose “a Europe where the president would not be elected and where the people in charge would not be accountable”.

Ganley put his money where his mouth is, forming Libertas. In speech after speech across Europe, he has argued that the party is neither anti-European nor eurosceptic.

What it wants, according to its manifesto, is a “democratic, accountable and transparent European Union”.

Ganley, a true ‘Irish success story’ despite the lack of an Irish accent, launched his three-piece suits and his Montecristo cigars into the ‘no’ campaign for the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty last year.

He made his voice heard in among the anti-globalisation activists and the left-wing nationalists, and helped the ‘No’ camp win the day with 53 percent of the vote.

It was a huge embarrassment for the Irish government and a huge headache for Brussels as every member state has to approve the treaty for it to be passed.

His next move was to undertake a sweep of Europe, looking for partners to help field Libertas candidates in the European elections.

And he found them: in Spain he has formed an alliance with the centre-left businessman Miguel Duran, and in Italy with the L’Autonomia, which contains members of the extreme-right in its ranks.

Poland’s Solidarity icon and ex-president Lech Walesa has also attended two Libertas conventions, wishing the party luck for the elections at a meeting in Rome. However, Walesa, a member of an EU committee of ‘wise men’, later told AFP he did not agree with Libertas.

Libertas is promising to field 613 candidates across Europe, although only 488 of them are directly fielded by the party — the others are from its ‘partner’ parties.

Yet Ganley has quietly dropped his promise to have candidates in all 27 EU states. There will be Libertas candidates in just 14 countries, with no one in Austria and Belgium for example.

Undeterred, Ganley is still predicting he will get 100 candidates elected to the European Parliament, which as the only directly-elected EU institution has an important role passing legislation drafted by the EU Commission.

Michael Marsh, from the European pollster site predict09.eu, told AFP that goal “seems highly unlikely. A dozen would be a good performance”.

Ganley looks set to find that turning a ‘No’ at the Irish referendum into a ‘Yes’ for the European Parliament, which also passes the EU Commission’s annual budget, is harder than it might seem.

Opinion polls show he is heading for defeat in his own seat in northwest Ireland.

And having promised to resign Libertas’ leadership if he fails to win election, the party faces the prospect of being rudderless ahead of a fresh referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland due to take place in October.

The European parliament, which has struggled to reinforce its standing in the continent, is expected to remain under centre-right control.

This article was originally published by Author Unknown in the EU Business of May 28th, 2009.

Conservatives tipped for EU win but low turnout looms

If, as expected, barely a third of eligible voters turn out for next month’s European Parliament elections, the predicted conservative win will have something of a hollow ring to it.

Opinion surveys agree: the conservative European People’s Party (EPP) bloc is likely to secure the biggest number of seats in the 736-seat assembly, giving it another five years dominating the parliament.

The question then, is how many of Europe’s 375 million electors will bother to cast their vote in the June 4-7 election?

A European poll from the beginning of the year suggested that only one in three (34 percent) of eligible voters would head to the ballot boxes.

If that did happen, it would set a new record low after the 45 percent turnout in 2004 — but then participation has been on a steady decline since 1979.

The European Parliament is the only EU institution elected by universal suffrage. The conservative EPP has gradually gained power there over the years, although this remains limited.

They are sufficiently confident of victory to have already named Poland’s Jerzy Buzek and Italy’s Mario Mauro to preside over the house, which meets in Strasbourg, eastern France and Brussels.

The economic crisis has been one of the dominant campaigning issues in many of the 27 EU countries — from Ireland to Hungary, as well as Spain, France and Germany. But surveys give no sign it will benefit the centre left.

Despite its efforts to blame the EPP for the crisis, the Party of European Socialists (PES) is expected to remain the assembly’s second power, with the current balance between the two blocs being maintained.

The eurosceptic parties could “win a few extra seats”, helped notably by the formation of the new Libertas movement, said Julia De Clerck-Sachsse from the European Policy Centre think tank in Brussels.

And they could even become a more coherent political force by linking up with the conservative British and Czech parties, who have abandoned the EPP.

But not enough to upset the European apple cart, she added.

Under those conditions, and given the lack of challengers, former Portuguese leader Jose Manuel Barroso — from the EPP — is expected to be granted a new term at the head of the EU’s executive body, the European Commission.

Indeed his confirmation as head of this unelected institution — assuming he is nominated, as expected, by EU leaders in mid-June — is likely to be one of the first jobs undertaken by the new assembly.

But turnout — or the lack of it — remains the real cloud on the horizon.

“Our main battle is the fight against abstention,” French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier said last week, as he campaigned for the ruling conservative UMP party.

Perhaps the greatest concern for pro-Europeans is what will happen in the newer members of the bloc, such as Poland or the Czech Republic, said Romanian euro-deputy Daniel Daianu.

EU enthusiasm has waned since they joined in 2004. Low turnout could blight the polls there as much as in the older European nations.

The reasons voters seem set to stay away are many, said Andreas Maurer, an analyst at Germany’s SWP institute.

A lack of truly European issues in campaigning, poor knowledge about the powers or even the role of the assembly, and closed-door discussions and sterile debates in plenary session are just a few.

Maurer also said that the absence of any real European intellectual personalities, Greens leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit aside, had robbed the debate of some of its punch and relevance.

This article was originally published by Author Unknown in the EU Business of May 5th, 2009.

Flags and slogans mark first pan-European party convention

Fledgling pan-European political group Libertas held its first ever convention on Friday [1 May], attracting over 1,000 people, including Polish Nobel Prize laureate Lech Walesa, but sending a somewhat fuzzy message to “Brussels bureaucrats.”

Gathered in Rome, speakers talked in generalities about themes such as democracy, liberty and transparency while pledging to never accept the Lisbon treaty.

Declan Ganley, Irish businessman and the founder of the political movement, said Libertas has four policies which only it can deliver to voters in June’s EU elections – accountability, value for money, full disclosure and elected politicians making EU law.

“There has never been a more important European election than this one. It is, quite simply, the last chance we have to ensure that our voice – Europe’s voice – is heard,” said the man who spear-headed the successful No camp in Ireland’s vote on Lisbon last year.

“People who never have to face a ballot box make most of our laws,” he went on, referring to the “unelected elite” in Brussels and saying that Libertas opponents are “afraid of democracy.”

Other speakers included Philippe de Villiers, the head of the nationalist Mouvement Pour La France; former Latvian Prime Minister Guntars Krasts; Eline van den Broek, the head of the Dutch anti-EU constitution movement; and centre-right Czech MP Vlastimil Tlusty, who recently led a no-confidence vote resulting in the fall of the Czech government.

Their speeches were heavy on big words such as democracy and liberty but light on policy detail, especially on the burning topic of the moment – the state of Europe’s economy.

“What unites us is the will to push Europe out of its economic crisis,” said Mr Krasts, noting that sound democratic pillars would provide a “solid base for dynamic market development.”

Most of the speakers, who come from diverse backgrounds and who often campaign on different issues on home turf, stuck to the agreed Libertas topics, but some let their personal bugbears shine through.

Mr de Villiers said that the “roots of Europe are here,” making the point that people from all 27 member states had come to the congress, a fact established by a shout-for-your-country session earlier in the day and plenty of national flags in the crowd.

The French politician said the perimeters of Europe must be defined “once and for all” and that it is “out of the question” for Turkey to join.

The Greek Libertas representative, Emmanuil Kalligiannis, compared Europe to a “whore,” saying it would be neither “decent” nor “moral” to negotiate with Turkey, which is “militarily occupying” 40 percent of Cyprus.

Former Slovak prime minister Jan Carnogursky likened the EU to Communism, which tried to “replace the sovereignty and culture of nations.”

In a surprise public relations coup, the founder of Poland’s anti-Communist Solidarity movement, Lech Walesa also gave a speech in praise of Libertas.

“I see a place for you. There is a place in Europe for different ideas. Too few people take part in elections, programmes are poor, there’s too much bureaucracy, so I agree with your diagnosis,” he said. “I wish you success. May you stay on God’s path.”

Mr Walesa came one day after his public appearance at the Warsaw congress of Libertas’ political rival, the pro-treaty, pro-integration, European People’s Party.

His presence prompted the single most concrete policy proposal of the Libertas convention, from Mr Ganley himself.

The Irishman pledged to “ensure that the shipyards in Gdansk stay open,” in reference to the place where Mr Walesa launched Solidarity, but which faces an uncertain future.

The Libertas convention was moderated by the telegenic Eline Van den Broek and ended with Libertas representatives from all member states signing an electronic petition for a new referendum.

“We, in the name of a stronger Europe, pledge that no new European treaty can be implemented without a referendum,” the plea said.

Despite their enthusiasm, several signed under the wrong country. The Bulgarian representative filled in for Finland by mistake, something Ms Van den Broek took as a sign of how “European” Libertas is.

Although it has had its first congress and Mr Ganley felt “humbled” by the support, his movement has yet to produce an election manifesto.

Its website says it will be published “in a few weeks,” with the European elections to take place in just over a month’s time on 4-7 June.

This article was originally published by Honor Mahony in the EU Observer of May 2nd, 2009.