German chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday (10 May) made an indirect attack on Britain's main opposition Conservative Party, which is currently leading in the polls ahead of the local and European elections in the UK.

"We refuse to stretch out our hand to those who oppose the Lisbon Treaty... that allows the entry of new members [in the EU], but who at the same time talk about enlargement," Ms Merkel said in Berlin at a campaign meeting for the June European elections attended by French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

"France admires you... France wants to resemble you in [your] excellence," Mr Sarkozy (l) told his German audience

"Those who want more [Europe] must cooperate," she told young politicians from her conservative CDU party.

Ms Merkel did not specify to whom her comments were addressed, but they were largely understood as targeting the British Conservatives and their leader, David Cameron.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A new website hopes to open up the political habits of MEPs, exposing voting behaviour, attendance and party allegiances in a bid to bring some EU politics to the European elections in June.

The website Votewatch.eu launched on Monday (11 May) aims to shed some light on the activities of euro-deputies who augment legislation affecting most aspects of EU citizens' lives.

MEP's record by nationality, national political party and the faction they belong to in the EU assembly is now available online

Using information that is publicly available but difficult to find, the website also breaks down each MEP's record by nationality, national political party and the faction they belong to in the EU assembly.

European Policy Centre (EPC) analyst Sara Hagemann, heading the project, stressed that the idea was not to "name and shame" MEPs but to set up a "monitoring tool."

Dr. Vinton G. Cerf. Vint is responsible for identifying new enabling technologies and applications on the Internet and other platforms for Google company. At the Open Forum Europe summit "The Future is Open" today, Vint gave the keynote address. He explained that the conscious choice to design an open and neutral Internet turned out to be the main ingredient for its tremendous success. If the Net stays open, he predicted that it will help us getting out of the present economic gloom by unleashing creative ideas and helping create successful businesses, small and large, in Europe and elsewhere. Before Vint took to the podium, Professor Ziga Turk had explained how the first communication revolution - cheap paper from China - empowered the masses and helped unleash the Renaissance's creativity, and how the Internet is provoking a second communication revolution by spreading knowledge across the globe. Vint took up the train of thought and offered an analogy to the French Revolutionary goals of liberté, egalité and fraternité, saying openness, open standards, and open source must be the three guiding principles for the Net to achieve this revolutionary promise.

Now that the European election campaign is in full swing, I will, no doubt, have any number of stories, both serious and on the lighter side.  While the East Dulwich estate, was probably on the serious side, my two engagements on Friday were most definitely heavy duty.

Burson Marsteller

At 8.30 on Friday morning I did a breakfast meeting organised  by the PR company Burson Marsteller for clients who were interested in discussing the European elections.  It was a panel discussion - always a challege at that hour in the morning.  On the patform were my MEP colleague, Liberl Democrat Baroness Sarah Ludford, the number four on the Conservative list in London, Belgian born Jean-Paul Floru and Professor Simon Hix from the LSE.