European Diary:With the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty edging closer, the political temperature is rising as the Yes and No campaigns set out their stalls on the future shape of Europe, writes Jamie Smyth
Sinn Féin's Mary Lou McDonald has already raised concerns about bias in the media, while Patricia McKenna, chairwoman of the People's Movement, has accused the Government of misusing public funds to support the Yes campaign. It was her victory in a 1995 Supreme Court case that banned the use of public money to promote one side in a referendum.
Back in Brussels, Eurosceptics have also been asking tricky questions about the use of public funds. Information released by the European Commission to Tory MEP Chris Heaton-Harris shows that millions of euro of taxpayers' money is funding pro-European think tanks and organisations promoting a federal Europe.
The European Movement, whose president is former Irish MEP Pat Cox, has received €2.55 million in EU funding in the past three years. Friends of Europe, Young European Federalists, the Trans European Policy Studies Association (which counts the Irish Institute of European Affairs as a member), Union des Fédéralistes Européens and Youth of European Nationalities have collectively benefited from just over €1 million.
"There is a problem with the European Commission pumping money into organisations that clearly just have one view about Europe, which is pro-integrationalist," says Heaton-Harris, who has submitted parliamentary questions to try to find out which non-governmental organisations, think tanks and political groups receive EU cash. Heaton-Harris accuses the EU of spending public money on a spin machine, which, in the case of think tanks, often hide behind claims of being independent. He also questions why Eurosceptic groups do not get cash.
Munster MEP and anti-treaty campaigner Kathy Sinnott says the lack of credible independent think tanks, when it comes to analysing the complicated text of the reform treaty, has been a problem.
"I've had to go to many organisations to get information on the treaty and I have found that the vast majority of think tanks are part of the Yes campaign," says Sinnott, who bemoans the lack of independent alternatives.
The EU executive denies that it is biased towards pro-European organisations, arguing that everybody, whether "Eurofriendly or Eurosceptic", can apply for funding. "The conditions attached to grant agreements relate to sound management of the programmes and in no way seek to influence the position taken by these organisations in policy debates," says a commission spokesman, who points out that European political parties with a Eurosceptic agenda are benefiting from EU funding.
Under an EU regulation adopted by states in 2004, 10 officially recognised European political parties have received funding, which is set at €10.8 million for 2008. The funding is intended to help develop a European political space, where transnational parties can debate EU issues rather than the purely national issues that have tended to dominate past European elections. Two Eurosceptic groups, the EU Democrats and the Alliance for Europe of the Nations, both receive money from this EU funding programme.
But the Eurosceptic political lobby in Brussels remains split on the question of using EU funds to further its ambitions. For example, the UK Independence Party (Ukip) refuses to join any European political party, arguing that to do so would contravene its core principle that EU taxpayers should not fund political parties. But Jens-Peter Bonde, the Danish MEP and inspiration behind the EU Democrats, has decided to accept EU funds to further his aim of fighting moves to a more integrated political union.
"We challenged the decision to fund European political parties in the European Court of Justice but lost our case. I don't think it is a good idea for EU taxpayers to fund political parties," says Bonde. "But if the critics of EU integration don't apply for the funding, then even more EU money will go to furthering the cause of the pro-EU parties."
The EU Democrats have also applied for funding to set up a political foundation under a new €5 million EU programme to help boost the political debate at EU level in 2008. But without the support of other key Eurosceptics in the European Parliament, such as Ukip, the amount of money they can access will be dwarfed by the amount of cash the main pro-EU political parties will be able to access to set up their own foundations.
"The EU is not that narrow and is open to a broad debate," says Jo Leinen, chairman of the committee of constitutional affairs in the parliament.
"The problem is that Eurosceptics work on a national level and don't create the type of European networks to enable them to access EU funds, which by their nature are transnational."
Eurosceptics face a tough choice: engage with Europe and access funds to further their opposition to a more integrated union or remain independent and principled. The former runs the risk of helping to create the sort of European political space they despise, while the latter could mean they remain disunited and lack the financial muscle to influence the big EU debates, such as the referendum on the reform treaty.