Libertas Institute (Ireland)

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.

Mission statement
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..."

Founders
The founders of the Libertas Institute were:

Personnel
Libertas Institute personnel included:

Charter
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:


 * Declan J. Ganley
 * Naoise Nunn
 * Dr. Constantin Gurdgiev
 * Paul MacDonnell
 * Carlos Rodriguez
 * Dr. Jana Hybaskowa, MEP
 * Ivan Gabal
 * Dr. Chris Coughlan
 * Professor Roger Downer
 * Artur Osuchowski
 * Stephen Nolan
 * Dr. Eamonn Conway
 * Eamonn Cregan
 * Gerard Lawless
 * Diego Solana
 * Francis O'Flaherty
 * James O'Reilly
 * David Cochrane
 * Keith O'Grady
 * Fiona Fallon
 * Zoltan Angyal
 * Professor Antonio Bar Cendón
 * Michael McCann

Press releases
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.

Commonality with other organisations
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.

Expenditure
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".

Income
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".

Regulation
The Libertas Institute was a "third party" for the purposes of political fundraising. Regulation of such is monitored by the Standards in Public Office Commission which imposed a donations limit of €5,348 per donor per year, rising to €6,348.69 per donor per year in 2009, imposes a limit of €126.97 for any given anonymous donation, and disallows any donation from any non-Irish citizens resident outside the island of Ireland.

Aims
The Libertas Institute advocated a European Energy Innovation Fund intended to license and fund carbon-neutral energy producers, the funding deriving from auctions of emissions allowances. It also deprecated the Treaty of Lisbon and advocated a "no" vote in Lisbon I, the first Irish referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon.

Libertas in the Lisbon I campaign
On 12 March 2008, Libertas launched a "no" campaign called "Facts, not politics" and stated that they expected to spend in the region of €1.5m on the campaign. The campaign targeted wavering moderates, the most critical votes for the referendum. The campaign was joined by businessman Ulick McEvaddy on 20 April 2008. Activities undertaken by Libertas during the referendum were as follows:

Several politicians, including Minister of State for European Affairs Dick Roche, clashed with the group's campaign stance but the Sunday Business Post reported that the group's efforts at projecting its warnings about the treaty in the media were "hugely successful".

The referendum was held on 12 June 2008 and defeated by 53.4% to 46.6%, with a turnout of 53.1%.

Aftermath
Following the referendum, attention shifted to Ganley's new political party Libertas.eu, and the Libertas Institute website libertas.org was redirected to that party's website.