LIBERTAS FOUNDER Declan Ganley has recruited two of Europe's most prominent Eurosceptics to help him if he decides to run in next year's European elections. He will travel to Paris tomorrow to speak at an event organised by a French Eurosceptic party, the Movement for France (MPF), to bolster his European links.

The former veteran Danish MEP Jens-Peter Bonde and Czech president Václav Klaus have pledged to support Mr Ganley to launch Libertas as a pan-EU political party. Both are ardent opponents of the EU and have tirelessly campaigned against policies that enable the EU to expand its activities beyond a common market.

In 2005, Mr Klaus called for the EU to be scrapped and replaced by a free-trade area called the "organisation of European states". He told visiting US diplomats in the same year that the EU was a "failed and bankrupt entity".

He is a trenchant opponent of the Lisbon Treaty and was the first EU leader to declare the treaty dead following the Irish No vote in June. Mr Klaus met Mr Ganley at his presidential palace outside Prague on July 29th for a private and initially unreported meeting.

The Czech newspaper Lidove noviny later quoted Mr Klaus's spokesman as saying: "They talked about the situation after the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland. The president expressed his support for activities of Libertas."

Mr Klaus is scheduled to make an official visit to Ireland in November, but it is not yet clear if he intends to meet Mr Ganley or express support for Libertas during this visit. Libertas has also attracted the support of Mr Bonde, who has been a regular visitor to Ireland during EU referendum campaigns and is a leading critic of the treaty.

"Mr Ganley is a strong communicator with a strong message. If they overrule the Irish vote in a referendum on Lisbon, I would expect him to run in the elections next year," said Mr Bonde, who added that the elections may become an EU-wide referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
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