No campaign:The signing of the Lisbon Treaty was "a sad day for Europe", businessman Declan Ganley from the think tank Libertas told a press conference in Dublin yesterday.
Describing the treaty as "a slight rewrite of the former European constitution", he pointed out that close to half-a-billion citizens in other European states were not being consulted on the document. "If a referendum were to be held across Europe, the people of Europe would reject this treaty out of hand and that's precisely why there is no referendum being held anywhere else in Europe," Mr Ganley said.
But he stressed that Libertas was a "pro-European organisation - it couldn't be more pro- European". Claiming the treaty was the product of "a European elite that is trying to foist something on to the citizens", he said it was "hard to think of an area in government where significant areas of sovereignty are not being transferred to Brussels".
"Europe is going to have a president in this 'constitution' for the first time in its history," Mr Ganley said. "Yet you are never going to be asked under this treaty who that person should be."
This was "a huge transfer of power".
Adding that Article 48 made the treaty self-amending, he said
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern was
giving Europe "a blank cheque". He expressed doubts that
"some of those that are advocating
voting for this treaty have actually read it".
If any voter took the time to read even part of the treaty, they would "know what to do" and reject it. The Libertas campaign poster for the referendum depicts the 1916 Proclamation being rendered void if the treaty is passed.
"The whole thrust of this campaign will be pro-European." It would be for the people of Europe, "not for some bureaucratic elite". Mr Ganley said the treaty was being presented as a superficially appetising portion of hot, steaming vegetable soup, but Libertas would be pointing to the "dead mouse that sits at the bottom of the bowl".
Asked if Libertas would share a platform with French right-wing politician Jean-Marie Le Pen, Mr Ganley said: "No we wouldn't". This was a "great hope" of the Yes campaign but Libertas would not campaign with Le Pen's party "or with any other extremist organisations".
Libertas (website: www.libertas.org) is a right-ofcentre think tank.
