Ganley's stance leaves more questions than answers

15 December 2008

You read it here first, writes Stephen Gardner. As predicted by Eurocorrespondent (in an article that earlier appeared in Private Eye) Ireland will vote again on the Lisbon Treaty before the end of the mandate of the current European Commission. That means by the end of October 2009, just like we said. This rather plays into the hands of Declan Ganley, the Irish businessman who has established the Libertas movement. Speaking in Brussels last week, he said he wanted Libertas to transform into a kind of pan-European political party that, while believing in the European Union, wants to see the bloc reformed, and its democratic credentials re-established. Specifically, Ganley said, the EU of the Lisbon Treaty was "anti-democratic." Referring to the first Irish referendum on Lisbon, he said "we see our democratic decisions being wilfully ignored." EU member states agreeing behind closed doors to streamroller popular decisions will "grow euroscepticism," Ganley warned. All fair enough. But what does Ganley propose to do? His answer is to get Libertas delegates elected to the European Parliament in next June's election. Libertas candidates will stand in all 27 EU countries. In that way, the people of Europe really will get their referendum, Ganley argues. Wrong approach But this approach perhaps reveals a fundamental misunderstanding on the part of Libertas about how the EU works. Even if Libertas is able to field a large number of candidates, and does score successes in the Euro-elections, so what? It might send a message, but what real difference will it make to EU transparency and accountability? The problem seems to be that Ganley is treating the European Parliament like a national parliament. In other words, he assumes that it has real power to enforce democratic checks and balances. But the EU does not have a government that must observe the wishes of its parliament. It has a collection of governments meeting in the EU Council. That is where the real power lies. The European Parliament scrutinises legislation and tries to impose its will, but it is the Council that has the final say. We have seen this very clearly in the last few days with the EU climate and energy package, a set of laws designed to reduce EU greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels. Lawmakers in the Parliament put forward radical suggestions for improving the climate package. They tried to tighten it up, put in strong compliance mechanisms, and close loopholes. But, at the European Summit on December 11-12, the member states largely ignored them. The Parliament's negotiators on the legislation then more-or-less caved in, agreeing to the Council's position at meetings on December 13. So the European Parliament gets a say -- and so will the Libertas representatives, if they get elected -- but Ganley is mistaken if he thinks this will lead to any significant change. Other questions Beyond this basic error, other questions can be raised about Ganley's motivation and funding. He seems to come from the centre-right, and to believe that the market can be left to solve climate change, for example (he said that an "entrepreneurial solution" should be found to global warming). He says he is no eurosceptic, but is happy to line up alongside Philippe de Villier's Mouvement pour la France, which says it wants to "recover" French national independence. On funding, Ganley said at his appearance in Brussels that the Libertas European election efforts would be paid for by U.S.-style Internet fundraising, while the anti-Lisbon Treaty campaign in Ireland had been paid for by Irish donors. But details were lacking and questions still remain.

 

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