EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Four women with strong anti-corruption credentials are battling to make it to Brussels, even as campaigning revolves around farce, scandals and populism in several EU states.

Norwegian-born French judge Eva Joly, on the French Green party's list, is making headlines in the Nordic countries with criticism of EU judicial and democratic standards.

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"Silvio Berlusconi is dangerous and Nicolas Sarkozy has authoritarian traits," she said about the Italian and French leaders in Danish daily Berlingske Tidende. "Europe cannot function with two countries, France and Italy, which have dysfunctional judicial administrations."

In her work as a judge, Ms Joly played a key role in exposing high-level corruption in French state-owned oil giant Elf Aquitaine.

Italian centre left candidate Rosaria Capacchione, a journalist who has written extensively about the Camorra, is calling for an EU-wide anti-organised crime initiative on the model of the EU's robust anti-trust investigative resources.