Danish groups critical of the development of the EU will be collecting money to fund the no-vote in Ireland's referendum on the Nice Treaty to be held on June 7th.
The Danish June Movement, the People's Movement and the weekly newspaper Notat, will tomorrow send out 40,000 brochures to all parts of Denmark, encouraging people to send money to TEAM, the network of European democratic groups opposed to further EU integration.
|
"It is not a case of Irish democracy or Danish democracy. The outcome of this referendum will affect all of us in the EU... This is a simple case ofEuropean solidarity," said Mr Kristian Groth of the June Movement.
The secretary of the National Platform campaign, Mr Anthony Coughlan welcomed the news but told ireland.com: "we will not be accepting money from organisations outside Ireland."
"The decision was taken independently of our group. It was not set up for the Irish referendum and is an ongoing thing for all future referendums throughout Europe," he said.
Mr Coughlan also said that claims that the National Platform would accept donations from right-wing groups in Britain's Tory Party were inaccurate.
The Taoiseach reacted angrily to reports last week that The Bruges Group - a body of Tory Eurosceptic MPs of which Lady Thatcher is honorary president - were raising money to fund a 'No' campaign in Ireland.
A leaflet published by the ginger group stated: "The Irish are the only people in the EU who are allowed to vote on the Nice treaty. That leaves eight weeks for the people of Ireland to determine the future of Europe." The leaflet then published the bank details of the National Platform.
Mr Coughlan confirmed that the National Platform had received "six or seven" donations that amounted to around £400. He said the organisation were happy to accept donations from "bona fide" individual European citizens and would publish their names and detail their donations in due course.
"You have to ask yourself why one or two people seem so paranoid about this. We are, whether we like it or not, all citizens of the European Union. If one group of citizens in any Member State wishes to assist another group in another Member State in a completely openand voluntary way, what's the problem?" said Mr Coughlan."Successive Irish governments have made a virtue of the billions they got from Brussels in the past," he added.