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Democracy
Regrettably, it’s no news anymore when fresh reports surface that prove again how non-institutional democratic initiatives in the European Union are stiffled by those in power in the corridors of the European institutions.
Intimidation? Smear campaign? Corruption? Dishonesty?
Many journalists in Brussels simply do not seem to bother anymore.
Today, Libertas, the new pan-European political party created by Irish ‘No-to-the-Lisbon-Treaty’-campaigner and businessman Declan Ganley, has begun to experience the full brunt of those defending vested interests in Brussels.
Libertas on Monday was given the official status of European political party, which entitles it to an immediate amount of about 200,000 euro in funding from a 10-mln euro budget in the European parliament. The biggest European party, the European People’s Party, gets more than 3 million euro out of this budget. To qualify, any party has to hand in signatures from at least seven different EU nationalities of members of the European parliament, or a national or regional parliament in the EU. Libertas did so a few months ago.
But surprise, surprise…. Less than 24 hours after the official status was granted, the parliament announced it had frozen the funds because first one, and now two, of the signatories said they did not sign. It’s the second time that Declan Ganley’s initiative is being badmouthed by people in the European parliament.
Igor Grazin of Estonia has signed, according to these photographs, back in October.
And as if Grazin’s withdrawal is not enough, Bulgarian MP Mintcho Hristov Kuminev late on Monday claimed not to have signed Libertas’s application to become a European political party. “This is untrue,” Libertas said in a press release headlined “More intimidation of Libertas signatories.”
“It might be a coincidence or it might be a concerted effort to intimidate or otherwise influence those who expressly support the advancement of democracy,” says Libertas. “We deplore the corrupt,dishonest and anti-democratic forces that are pushing them to renounce their support.”
