a pan-European political movement. Libertas ran candidates in 20 European countries for the 2009 European Parliament election. In Rome, on 1 May 2009, Libertas held its first Party Congress. Libertas's political policies called for greater levels of democracy, transparency, and accountability within the EU, as well as a twenty-five-page alternative to the Lisbon Treaty. Libertas was revealed to have spent over €5.6 million on campaigning against passage of the Lisbon Treaty in its second referendum, which led Minister of State for European Affairs Dick Roche to state that Libertas were not transparent about their spending on campaigning against the Lisbon Treaty. The origin of the Party's funding has been questioned. Ganley revealed that he personally loaned the party €200,000 for the Lisbon Treaty Campaign. In 2008, the European Union was reported to ask US Congress about Libertas funding. Gay Mitchell, Irish MEP, questioned whether the Libertas's €1.3 million budget was backed by the CIA or the US military - a claim Ganley and many others openly mocked. Ganley has never provided exact details on the source of funding. In May 2009, Irish public broadcaster RTÉ ran a Prime Time profile of Ganley. In response, he stated he would launch "significant and extensive legal action against RTÉ and Prime Time". Ganley began legal proceedings in December 2011. An opinion piece published by Bruce Arnold in the Irish Independent claimed Ganley was the victim of a government organised smear campaign. In 2020, Ganley settled the case with RTE for an undisclosed sum, which he said was "substantial", and RTE issued an apology. In May 2009, Arnold produced a 156-page book with Ganley, and 100,000 copies in various languages were to be subsequently distributed across Europe by Ganley. In January 2013, Ganley received an apology and a nominal €50 donation to a charity in an out of court settlement over a defamatory Twitter comment made about him. That same month, he agreed to pay expenses of failed Libertas candidate Raymond O'Malley. Candidacy to the European Parliament On 14 March 2009, at a press interview Ganley announced his candidacy for the European Parliament, for Libertas in the North-West constituency. Until 1 May 2009, Ganley travelled all over Europe to campaign against the Lisbon Treaty, and helped local Libertas branches. On 1 May 2009, Libertas held its first Party Congress and afterwards he focused his campaign on the North-West constituency, canvassing, attending public speeches and