The Lisbon Treaty could finally come into effect in 2009, eight years after European leaders launched a process to make the EU "more democratic, more transparent and more efficient".
Naoise Nunn, former executive director of Libertas which campaigned against the Treaty, tells David Grossman why he believes that Ireland, which rejected it last year, does not have the luxury of voting No for a second time.
MARK HENNESSY, Political CorrespondentIRELANDDOES not have the luxury of a second No vote in the Lisbon Treaty referendum and voters should vote Yes, one of the architects of last year’s Libertas campaign has said.
Naoise Nunn, who resigned as executive director of Libertas last September said: “The circumstances have changed: internationally, economically, financially and domestically.
“We don’t have the luxury of doing anything else. I am glad that we had a referendum. We were the only member state to do so, to have a proper debate, or something like a proper debate,” Mr Nunn told The Irish Times .
His public declaration will come as an embarrassment for Libertas founder, Declan Ganley, who is running for the organisation in the European Parliament elections in the North-West constituency.
Both sides were guilty, he said, of “scare-mongering and misinformation” during the referendum campaign. Mr Nunn, who was one of the central figures in Libertas’s campaign last year, is understood to have written a detailed critique of Libertas’s performance last year for Mr Ganley’s attention before his departure last year.
However, Mr Nunn declined to reveal its contents yesterday: “I am not into washing dirty linen in public. I did work for Libertas. I was an employee. I was doing my job. I put the arguments out.”
A No vote in the referendum, which is expected to take place in October, would be “dangerous for the country, but I don’t think frankly that that is going to happen”. However, he said he had not changed his view that the EU is “disconnected” from its citizens, though he raised questions about “much vaunted” efforts to communicate a clear message to them.
Asked why he had referred to Libertas as having “dirty linen”, Mr Nunn said: “I don’t want to be specific about that. They are people I worked with. They are people I don’t want to hurl abuse at.”
Questioned about his attitude to his former boss, Mr Nunn, who now runs Leviathan, a political forum, said he had always “got on” with Mr Ganley: “He is a very personable guy.”
He went on: “He is a very driven guy, who is extremely ambitious. He feels he has a role to play in European politics. He is fascinated by all of it. He devours history books. He is absolutely fascinated by all of it.”
Mr Nunn is believed to have been behind Libertas’s successful billboard campaign, which focused on the dangers for Ireland if it lost a permanent place at the European Commission.
While he accepted that commissioners act in the European and not the national interest, he said there is a public perception that it is “almost like a senate of the EU”; and “a lot of people felt the loss of that disconnection.
“But it appears that that issue has been resolved, or, at least, there is a serious will to resolve it,” said Mr Nunn, pointing to an agreement last December among EU leaders that all member states will continue to be represented.
He said he had changed his mind on the treaty before he left Libertas last September: “My opinions evolved. Political views do evolve over time.”
Libertas spin doctor advised McGuinness on 'Late Late'
Tuesday April 28 2009
NAOISE Nunn has been busily tweeting on his 'Twitter' site amid the continued fall-out from the junior ministerial reshuffle.
In advance of the controversial 'Late Late Show' appearance of John McGuinness, his 'Twitter' site was telling its 131 followers that it would be "interesting" to hear what the scorned junior minister would have to say about the Government.
Since then, visitors have been invited to examine a poll on another political website showing that 95.5pc don't believe Tanaiste Mary Coughlan is up to the job and to log onto another site where they can discuss the "blunders of Mary".
When not tweeting, Dublin-born Mr Nunn (37) runs a very active and successful "political consultancy and events" business from his base in Galway.
The list of past activities is long and varied. He is the founder and producer of the political cabaret 'Leviathan' show, director of the 'Spoken Word' area at the Electric Picnic Festival, line producer of 'I, Keano: The Musical' and manager of the comedy group 'Apres Match'.
Between 2001 and 2005, he was one of the editorial staff in Leinster House, before joining Libertas in October 2006 as its executive director.
Last year, as the Lisbon Treaty campaign raged on, Mr Nunn found himself at the centre of some controversy when it emerged that he was an employee of Declan Ganley's company Rivada Network which has links with the US military.
The revelation prompted Libertas to come out and insist that Rivada was not funding Libertas and that any employees working with the anti-Lisbon Treaty organisation did so in a strictly voluntary capacity.
Mr Nunn confirmed last night that he would switch sides in the forthcoming Lisbon Treaty re-run and support a 'Yes' vote. He said Ireland had "completely transformed" since the treaty was rejected last June and the changed circumstances meant that Ireland, more than ever, needed to be a strong member of the EU.
- Aine Kerr
Libertas founder to fund Polish party through the back door?
30th March 2009
Irish millionaire businessman Declan Ganley plans to take advantage of a loophole in Polish law that would allow him to fund the Polish branch of euroskeptic political party Libertas.
Polish law bans foreign financial funding in domestic politics, but Ganley appears to have found a way to bypass current legislation. The founder of Libertas and ardent euroskeptic proposes to act as a guarantor if Libertas Poland are unable to repay the bank loans issued to run the party.
The story broke in Saturday's edition of Dziennik and provoked outrage amongst politicians, who described the news as “scandalous.”
Zbigniew Chlebowski, PO's parliamentary club leader, called the news “unsettling” as, “a bank guarantee that gives a party money for elections can be given by a person that is prohibited by law to do so. This means to circumvent the existing rules,” he said.
Mr Chlebowski called for fast and decisive action in dealing with Mr Ganley's proposed funding, and expects advice from specialist lawyers to be available in the coming days.
From Warsaw Business Journal by Robert Szmigielski
Earlier Liberats Nein Danke reports here
Libertas refuses to go public on party funding
By Aine Kerr Political Correspondent
Tuesday March 31 2009
LIBERTAS last night supplied the State's ethics watchdog with a series of financial documents in a bid to provide "detailed answers" about its funding.
But the anti-Lisbon Treaty organisation will not be making public any copies of the bank statements or loan agreements, despite its own calls for greater political transparency.
Two weeks ago, the organisation failed to provide adequate information to the Standards in Public Office (Sipo) commission on where it got the money to fund its expensive campaign for a 'No' vote in the Lisbon Treaty referendum. It has since been accused of "not being willing to operate under the Law" by Fianna Fail.
Libertas last night submitted documents in relation to three key issues queried. Copies of a €200,000 loan agreement between Libertas chief Declan Ganley and the organisation were provided, after Sipo first wrote to it last June seeking details of any loans provided to the organisation for the referendum campaign.
Details of the thousands of books on the Lisbon Treaty supplied by the Foundation for European Democracy and distributed by Mr Ganley were also submitted.
Sipo had raised questions about whether these constituted a donation because the material could be deemed to be influencing the vote's outcome.
However, legal advisers for Libertas are said to have argued that the books do not constitute a donation because the material was neutral and simply relayed the contents of the Lisbon Treaty.
The third aspect of the submission covers the employees of Mr Ganley's Rivada company, who worked for Libertas in their spare time and on a voluntary basis. Sipo again questioned if the use of these employees constituted a donation. Documents provided seek to outline when staff worked for Rivada, then moved to Libertas.
Asked why the organisation had decided against making the documents public, a spokesman said: "Why would we make them public, spend weeks explaining the details and have the Opposition attacking the contents when they won't do the same thing. There's a need for fairness."
- Aine Kerr Political Correspondent
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The Standards Commission wrote to four of the registered third parties
regarding the provision of loans - Libertas, CÓIR, Campaign Against EU
Constitution and Irish Alliance for Europe. These groups were selected on
the basis that they intended to incur expenditure of €10,000 or above at the
referendum. The Irish Alliance for Europe, CÓIR and Campaign Against EU
Constitution informed the Standards Commission that they had not received any
loans to finance their referendum campaigns. Libertas had already informed the
Standards Commission of a loan provided by Mr Declan Ganley. The letter to
Libertas asked whether other loans had been provided to fund the referendum
campaign. At the time of writing this report, and despite a number of written
and telephone reminders to Libertas, it has failed to provide the required
information to the Standards Commission.
Further correspondence
with Libertas
The "responsible person" of Libertas, Mr Naoise Nunn informed
the Standards Commission on 30 September 2008 that he had resigned from Libertas
with effect from 19 September 2008. In addition to furnishing a
Certificate and bank statement in respect of the third party's political
donations account, the responsible person must also ensure that any prohibited
donations which might be received by the third party are returned to the donor
or remitted to the Standards Commission. The Standards Commission wrote,
therefore, to Libertas requesting it to provide details of the person who had
replaced Mr Nunn as responsible person for Libertas. At the time of
writing this report, Libertas has not provided this information to the Standards
Commission.
Referendum campaign funding by Libertas
Following
media reports, the Standards Commission decided to make certain enquiries with
Libertas in order to ensure that it complied with its obligations under the Act
regarding the opening and maintenance of a political donations account and the
non-acceptance of prohibited donations. In that regard the Standards
Commission made the following enquiries with
Libertas:
a) Employees of Rivada
Networks Ltd
It was suggested that persons employed by Rivada may have been
paid by that company while working for Libertas on its referendum
campaign. If this was the case it could be regarded as a donation to
Libertas from Rivada. If the total value of the services provided exceeded
€6,348.69 in any year, Libertas would be required to refund the excess donation
to Rivada.
Libertas confirmed that Rivada employees "who worked on
the Libertas project did so in their spare time and on a voluntary
basis."
On 11 September 2008 the Standards Commission asked
Libertas to provide further details of the employees who worked on the
referendum campaign. At the time of writing this report, Libertas has not
provided this information to the Standards
Commission.
b) Use of "The Lisbon
Treaty: the Readable
Version"
The Standards
Commission was aware that Libertas had distributed a book - "The Lisbon Treaty:
the Readable Version" - as part of its referendum campaign. It was
reported that the book "sells for €20" and that 35,000 copies of the book had
been given to Libertas by another organisation, the Foundation for European
Democracy. A donation is defined in the Act as a contribution given for
political purposes. This includes the free or below cost provision of
goods, property or services. If the books were given for the purpose of
assisting Libertas in its referendum campaign and if the total value of the
books provided to Libertas exceeded €6,348.69 in any year, Libertas would be
required to refund the excess donation to the Foundation for European
Democracy. The Standards Commission requested Libertas to clarify the
position with regard to the use of these books, whether they were provided free
or below commercial cost, and querying why the provision of these books should
not be regarded as a donation to
Libertas.
On 13
August 2008 Libertas confirmed that it had received a number of copies of this
book from "the EU Democrats". Libertas stated that the books did not
contain any political messaging and that they were distributed free of
charge. The Standards Commission considered that this response was not
entirely relevant in determining whether provision of the books constituted a
donation to Libertas. The Standards Commission wrote again to Libertas
advising it that if the books were provided free of charge (where a charge
normally applies) and were given for the purposes of seeking to influence the
outcome of the referendum it would be regarded as a donation to Libertas.
Libertas was asked for its further comments as to why the provision of these
books should not be regarded as a donation. At the time of writing this report,
Libertas has still not provided any further comments on this matter to the
Standards Commission.
read full report here
c)
Loans provided to Libertas
The Standards Commission's position on the issuing and repayment of loans is set
out in Part 4 of its guidelines for political parties (published in December
2006). The same position applies to loans to third parties. The
guidelines state that where an individual or body, who or which is not a
financial institution, gives a loan to a person who is covered by the Act, it
must be evident that the loan offered is a bona fide loan and that the interest
chargeable on the loan reflects interest charged by financial institutions on
loans of similar amount and duration. The Standards Commission wrote to
Libertas on 19 June 2008 requesting details of any loans provided to it from a
financial institution or other person for the purposes of funding its referendum
campaign.
Mr
Ganley replied on 13 August 2008 confirming that Libertas had received a
personal loan from him "in respect of which a detailed legal agreement and
repayment plan in accordance with commercial lending norms" had been
agreed. In its guidelines for political parties the Standards Commission
advises that it may require sight of the terms and conditions, including the
interest charge, applying to a loan provided by a person who or which is not a
financial institution. The Standards Commission wrote to Mr Ganley on 22
August and requested a copy of the legal agreement and repayment plan for the
loan made to
Libertas.
In spite
of subsequent correspondence with Mr Ganley and his legal representatives, the
information requested by the Standards Commission has not been provided by
Libertas at the time of writing this report.
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