Libertas (lobby group)
Logo of the Libertas Institute.
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| Formation | 24 October 2006 |
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| Type | anti Lisbon Treaty advocacy group |
| Headquarters | Moyne Park, Tuam, County Galway, Ireland |
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Official language
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English |
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President
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Declan Ganley |
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Key people
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Naoise Nunn, David Cochrane, John McGuirk, James O'Reilly, Norrie Keane, Martina Higgins. |
| Website | www.libertas.org |
The Libertas Institute is a lobby group that along with others successfully campaigned for a "no" vote in the 2008 referendum in Ireland on the Treaty of Lisbon.
Its mission statement was "...to initiate and provoke enlightened discussion on the European Union, its relevance to its member states and peoples and its role in World affairs having regard to our shared values of peace, democracy, individual liberty and free markets..."
The founders of the Libertas Institute were:
Libertas Institute personnel included:
The Libertas Charter (archived here) defined what was considered to be Europe's traditional values and influences, asserted what citizens' rights and responsibilities were, acknowledged the EU's role since WWII, stated that the present EU's structure was inherently undemocratic and unaccountable, and pledged to create a popular movement to debate Europe's future.
The charter was signed by the following:
The first Libertas Institute press release archived on the Wayback Machine dates to 22 June 2007. It concerned French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Treaty of Lisbon's clause regarding free and undistorted competition: an article by Ganley dated 16 July 2007 in Business Week covered similar themes. The Libertas Institute continued to release press releases during its existence.
Libertas is registered at Moyne Park, Tuam, County Galway along with other organisations associated with Libertas and/or Declan Ganley. A list of organisations associated with Libertas.eu and/or Declan Ganley is given here.
2007 expenditure by Libertas Institute Ltd according to its accounts was:
The deadline for submitting a copy of its 2008 bank statement to SIPO was 31 March 2009.
Expenditure during the Lisbon I campaign was estimated at "approximately €800,000", "exceeded €1 million", or "€1.3 million", or "€1.8 million".
The Libertas Institute had a loan facility with Ganley, and by 3 October 2008 it had used €200,000 of this money. Since 1 January 2008, it also had the facility to receive public donations via its website. Ganley and his wife (Delia Mary Ganley, née Paterek) also donated the maximum amount of €6,300 each. Libertas stated that its donors were "100% Irish".
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Wikipedia