Don't Let Them Do This To You Mk II

Is there nothing these grubby little bureaucrats won't meddle in? Last week they claimed 'The King's Speech' as a success for the European film industry despite the fact that it was wholly British made and funded, this week we learn that they're pouring money into America's anti-death penalty groups.

Leaving aside for a moment the fact that they're spending Brtish taxpayers' money to support a view that the majority of British people do not (latest poll showed 51% support the re-introduction of the death penalty here), what gives them the right to interfere in this way with the internal affairs of an independent sovereign nation?

Here's where the money went in 2009:

American Bar Association Fund for Justice and Education: EU grant: €708,162 ($983, 277)
Project: The Death Penalty Assessments Project: Toward a Nationwide Moratorium on Executions

Death Penalty Information Center: EU grant: €193,443 ($268,585) Project: Changing the Course of the Death Penalty Debate. A proposal for public opinion research, message development, and communications of capital punishment in the US.

The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty: EU grant: €305,974 ($424,829) Project: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Intensive Assistance Program

Reprieve LBG: EU grant: €526,816 ($731,591) (some of these funds also went to “European countries”) Project: Engaging Europe in the fight for US abolition

Murder Victim’s Families for Human Rights Non-Profit Corporation: EU grant: €495,000 ($686,608) (some of these funds also went to other countries, including Japan and Taiwan). Project: Voices of Victims Against the Death Penalty

Witness to Innocence Protection: EU grant: €395,000 ($548,538) Project: American DREAM Campaign

"This could be just the tip of the iceberg in terms of EU money flowing to US organisations on any number of causes."