A wall of soft propaganda

The Sunday Telegraph reported that Robin Cook's former advisor David Clark is planning to set up another pro-EU campaign group. Apparently it's a joint venture with the (EU-funded) Federal Trust.

The Robin Cook Foundation will add to the existing alphabet soup of ropey and often EU-funded groups campaigning for further integration. We already have The European Movement, the Federal Trust, Federal Union, (splitters!) Business for New Europe and the Foreign Policy Centre. Even the Centre for European Reform, which is pretty much independent, has taken EU funds for projects. And that's not to speak of the Commission's representation in London, which has ballooned in size since the no votes (up to about 40 staff). The Foreign Office also has a chunky budget for selling the EU to the public. And still they complain that the debate is biased against them.

The Commission spends a lot of money creating fake civil society organisations which then lobby for "more Europe". In fact a breakdown of the main budget line for propaganda - though of course there are lots of others - shows that they spent €33 million in 2005 on 307 different grants (only 70 of which managed to have their accounts certified).