Libertas bid to get EU election funds

DECLAN GANLEY’S pan-European political party Libertas is expected to be approved for funding by the European Parliament on Monday.

With the support of elected politicians from a quarter of the EU’s member states Mr Ganley can qualify for a share of the €17 million set aside for European-wide parties.

The controversial businessman, who is to run for one of the three seats in the west of Ireland in June’s European Parliament elections, hopes to have up to 300 candidates throughout the EU.

The money may be used for the parliamentary elections, but all donations over €500 must be declared and the money cannot be used to finance referenda campaigns.

Libertas submitted an application in November listing the support of eight elected politicians from seven of the EU’s 27 member states: France, Greece, Britain, Finland, Estonia, Bulgaria and Poland.

A source in the parliament confirmed that Mr Ganley’s application “ticked all the boxes” and that the presidents of the political groups in the European Parliament will rubber-stamp the application on Monday.

The eight candidates representing Libertas are all conservative politicians and include some well-known anti-abortion and euro-sceptic figures.

The controversial businessman’s funding of his anti-Lisbon treaty campaign in Ireland was raised in the parliament after Mr Ganley refused to publish accounts.

The leader of the Green group, Danny Cohn-Bendit, called on member states and the European Commission to investigate reports that Libertas funding was linked to the US Pentagon and CIA.

But the EU bodies have no powers to do so and instead encouraged anybody with evidence to hand it over to the Standards in Public Office, which had demanded details from Mr Ganley about the estimated €1.2m spent on the campaign.