EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The head of the anti-treaty Libertas group, Declan Ganley, has announced he will run for a seat in the European Parliament in the June elections.

The announcement that he will contest a seat in the North West of Ireland puts an end to months of speculation about whether Mr Ganley, a business man who last year led a successful campaign against the Lisbon treaty in Ireland, would take the ultimate step by personally entering the political arena.

Mr Ganley is to run in the North West of Ireland

"We have to wake up in this country and realise that being in favour of Europe does not mean being in favour of everything Brussels wants," Mr Ganley told supporters on Saturday evening (12 March), reports the Irish Times.

Mr Ganley, who during the pre-referendum campaign played on fears about Ireland losing its tax sovereignty under the Lisbon treaty, said his group was against the treaty "not because we opposed Europe, but because we opposed its direction.