In an attempt to drum up public interest in the European elections, socialist and liberal parties launched scathing attacks on one another last week in a series of press releases and open letters published in the Belgian press.

As European liberal democrats gathered in Brussels to launch their election campaign on Wednesday (15 April), socialist leaders warned them to "tread carefully" when backing the extension of the EU's single market to sensitive sectors such as energy, postal services, railways and health care.

The warning came in a letter co-signed by Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, president of the Party of European Socialists (PES) and Dutch and French-speaking leaders of the Socialist Party in Belgium, Caroline Gennez (Flemish S.PA) and Elio di Rupo (Wallonian PS).

(For the Liberals' response, see DoDo's Despairing About Liberals.