The stark reality of the financial crash for the rest of us is going to be bucked by Euro-MPs.

Will MEPs brave political unpopularity to bailout their second pensions?

The European Parliament's powerful and secretive "bureau" has been struggling to plug a £106 million black hole in the fund that pays out a second pension perk to MEPs.

This generous pension perk is already two thirds funded by the taxpayer and predictably the public purse will "almost certainly" be raided to make up fund losses caused by the financial crash and dodgy investments.

The identities of the 478 MEPs who get the publicly funded second pension contributions worth over £12 million a year is a closely guarded secret - read more here.

About four weeks ago, Luc Van den Brande, President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), joined with his European Parliament counterpart Hans-Gert Pöttering in calling on local and regional representatives from across the EU to encourage citizens to vote in June's European elections. The headline of the press release was Van den Brande and Pöttering urge regional and local elected politicians to get involved in European elections. All 27 versions can be accessed here.


It is remarkable how few changes would be needed to make the text applicable to the political parties at European level, the so called Europarties.

You know from previous posts that I like the way the Party of European Socialists (PES) has managed to develop a European campaign.

But when I see the open letter PES leader Poul Nyrup Rasmussen has written to "attack" the European Liberals and Democrats (ELDR) which start their European campaign today with an event in Brussels, I feel kind of lala.

The positions expressed in the letter may sound social democratic or socialist, but in general they sound rather anti-European and anti-EU.

This is what the European Socialists have to offer? Arguments against the European Union? Amazing. Where have they been over the last 20 years?

Julien Frisch: European Parliament elections 2009 (83): PES and ELDR start campaign fight with exchange of open letters

European Parliament elections 2009 (83): PES and ELDR start campaign fight with exchange of open letters Yesterday, the Party of European Socialist (PES) wrote an open letter to the European Liberals and Democrats (ELDR). Today, ELDR has answered with another open letter.

This is the first substantial exchange of political arguments I am aware of on the European level in this campaign.

It is the first time we get into something that is worth debating. And because it's not about me (although I had my say on the issues yesterday), let me just present you parts of the letters (PES in italic, ELDR in blockquote) and make it a true exchange, without my comments interfering. I have erased some lines, to make it not too long, but don't hesitate to read the integral versions that are linked above!