There's now a temporary website for the "European Council on Foreign Relations".
Apparently George Soros is going to spend some of the vast pile of cash he took off every single person in Britain in 1992 on promoting a single EU Foreign Policy.
They are planning offices in "Berlin, Paris, London, Madrid, Rome and Warsaw as well as a presence in Brussels and the new member states." That can't be cheap.
You can bet that one of the first priorities for their cash-rich campaign will be to assist the passage of the constitutional treaty.
It will be run by Mark Leonard, inventor of "cool Britannia" and the author of "Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century" (which was launched, with brilliant comic timing, just before the "no" votes). Presumably it will compete with his former employer, the Centre for European Reform.
It sounds like the EU great and good will turn out in force to back it.
7 comments:
c'mon how pathetic. the website has been around for a few months. Even major newspapers reported about it...
Can we take it that you are opposed in principle to any groups getting corporate funding to argue a particular point of view about Europe? If so, when are you going to return your own corporate funding and how are you going to survive without it? Come to think of it, who funds you exactly?
Why don't you just argue the EU issues with this group on the merits, without any sneering asides at their funding?
Our list of supporters is here.
http://openeurope.org.uk/about%2Dus/supporters.aspx
They do.
Who are you, by the way? Or would you prefer not to say?
Suffice it to say that I am not supported by corporate donations -- which was the point of your initial post.
No it wasn't. You have got the wrong end of the stick. It was specificly about having a single massive donor - particularly one as controversial as Soros. Though we are funded by individual donations you'll notice we didn't criticise think tanks like the CER for getting corporate funding.
Could you tell use at least why you wont tell us who you are? It does rather discourage debate.
I tried to leave a comment earlier today, but maybe it fell the wrong way of the Open Europe censors.
I said that Open Europe is not being transparent with regard to its funding, which is in marked contrast to its calls (which I support) for greater transparency in the Common Agricultural Policy. We at farmsubsidy.org declare every donation we receive: who paid, and how much. Will Open Europe meet this gold standard?
The European Council on Foreign Relations, when it launches in October, will declare all its funding sources and amounts paid. And note that George Soros is a minority funder. The majority of funding comes from foundations based in Europe.
Thanks for the report. I suspect from the remarks you received, that you have encountered some of the Soros team. You may want to check my posting on this at:
http://myflandersfields.blogspot.com/2007/09/soros-cash-and-ideology-now-for-eu.html
This will give a different perspective on Soros and related groups and activities than your commenters seem to be giving. To consider Soro's actions as the activities of a normal business person is ludicrous.
He almost broke the Bank of England. What is he after now? It probably has to do with ideology and dangers to free society.
Your report is credited and linked in my posting. You are linked at my site.
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