EUROPEAN TRADE commissioner Peter Mandelson has criticised the way in which the Yes campaign was handled during the Lisbon Treaty referendum.
He said that during the debate "an appalling number of rumours, on which people's prejudices and fears were built, had contributed to the No vote in Ireland".
The former British minister brushed aside suggestions that his negotiating tactics at World Trade Organisation talks might have contributed to the outcome.
Mr Mandelson said anti-Lisbon campaigners had made "completely fallacious assertions" about abortion, conscription and neutrality, which had not been confronted. "All of those fears should have been addressed, all those misrepresentations should have been corrected. Frankly, the untruths . . . by some of the propagandists should have been rebutted right at the beginning of this campaign."
Mr Mandelson was speaking on Wednesday in Moscow, before talks with Russian ministers. - (Reuters)