The Libertas Institute is a lobby group that along with others successfully campaigned for a "no" vote in the 2008 referendum in Ireland on the Treaty of Lisbon.

Its mission statement was "...to initiate and provoke enlightened discussion on the European Union, its relevance to its member states and peoples and its role in World affairs having regard to our shared values of peace, democracy, individual liberty and free markets..."^[1]

The founders of the Libertas Institute were:

Libertas Institute personnel included:

The Libertas Charter (archived here) defined what was considered to be Europe's traditional values and influences, asserted what citizens' rights and responsibilities were, acknowledged the EU's role since WWII, stated that the present EU's structure was inherently undemocratic and unaccountable, and pledged to create a popular movement to debate Europe's future.^[12]

The charter was signed by the following:

• Declan J. Ganley^[12]
• Naoise Nunn^[12]
• Dr. Constantin Gurdgiev^[12]
• Paul MacDonnell^[12]
• Carlos Rodriguez^[12]
• Dr. Jana Hybaskowa, MEP^[12]
• Ivan Gabal^[12]
• Dr. Chris Coughlan^[12]
• Professor Roger Downer^[12]
• Artur Osuchowski^[12]
• Stephen Nolan^[12]
• Dr. Eamonn Conway^[12]
• Eamonn Cregan^[12]
• Gerard Lawless^[12]
• Diego Solana^[12]
• Francis O'Flaherty^[12]
• James O'Reilly^[12]
• David Cochrane^[12]
• Keith O'Grady^[12]
• Fiona Fallon^[12]
• Zoltan Angyal^[12]
• Professor Antonio Bar Cendón^[12]
• Michael McCann^[12]

The first Libertas Institute press release archived on the Wayback Machine dates to 22 June 2007.^[13][14] It concerned French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the Treaty of Lisbon's clause regarding free and undistorted competition:^[13] an article by Ganley dated 16 July 2007 in Business Week covered similar themes.^[15] The Libertas Institute continued to release press releases during its existence.

Libertas is registered at Moyne Park, Tuam, County Galway along with other organisations associated with Libertas and/or Declan Ganley.^{[16][17][18][19][20][21]} A list of organisations associated with Libertas.eu and/or Declan Ganley is given here.

The Libertas Institute advocated a European Energy Innovation Fund intended to license and fund carbon-neutral energy producers, the funding deriving from auctions of CO₂ emissions allowances.^[26] It also deprecated the Treaty of Lisbon^[27] and advocated a "no" vote in Lisbon I, the first Irish referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon.

On 12 March 2008, Libertas launched a "no" campaign called "Facts, not politics"^[28] and stated that they expected to spend in the region of €1.5m on the campaign.^[29] The campaign targeted wavering moderates,^[30] the most critical votes for the referendum.^[30] The campaign was joined by businessman Ulick McEvaddy on 20 April 2008.^[31] Activities undertaken by Libertas during the referendum were as follows:

Several politicians, including Minister of State for European Affairs Dick Roche, clashed with the group's campaign stance^[46] but the Sunday Business Post reported that the group's efforts at projecting its warnings about the treaty in the media were "hugely successful".^[47]

The referendum was held on 12 June 2008^[48] and defeated by 53.4% to 46.6%, with a turnout of 53.1%.^[49]

Following the referendum, attention shifted to Ganley's new political party Libertas.eu, and the Libertas Institute website libertas.org was redirected to that party's website.