Would you like to know who is the laziest MEP in your country? Now it's easy. For Poland the answer is: Krzysztof Hołowczyc, otherwise know for his career in car racing. 

A new website www.votewatch.eu aggregates data made available by the European Parliament concerning not only the attendance of MEPs, but also how they voted. An invaluable source for us journalists.

The issue of absences is indeed a sticky one. A previous website www.parlorama.eu , which had only data on attendance had to close "due to the overwhelming volume of compaints", as it now states.

What did the MEP - our (?) representatives in the Europen Parliament - do for us - citizens and voters - over the last five years of their mandate ? Why should we vote (again)? And is/was their a real choice? Asking this question in the just started election campaign it's not easy to get really useful answers. What we see: EP and other EU-institutions spent a lot of (taxpayers/voters) money to sell their 'success stories'. The aim of this expensive exercise is clear: the EU-power-elite tries to get a high voting participation-rate.

Why? It's one of the main justifications of politicians. For what? Doing during their mandate - what they want: "You voted for us, so let us in peace an doing our job", we often hear the years after we gave them our vote. Frustrating - especially in this hard times when governments spent in some weeks time billions of Euro and Dollars to save "systemrelevant" banks, other companies and - last but not least - their own power.

Are there indicators, to illustrate the work of MEPs? The presence in the plenary or committees sessions? Not easy stuff. If even the attendance-statistics are not transparent.  And: `terrain polititique, liaisons dangereuse'. Some Journalists and others got over the last weeks an impression, how sensitive MEPs are, when you ask for their attendance in the Brussel or Strasbourg hemicyle .

Interesting again the french reports of Jean Quatremer of Libération. Despite all transparency-rethoric: the EP ist full of secrets and some hidden knowledge. Congratulations, Monsieur Flavien Deltort. The former assistant of the italian MEP  Marco Cappato did a great job and listed all available MEP-statistics on the attendance and other activities of MEP. 

A couple of months ago we all complained that there is no tool for tracking MEP votes in the European Parliament. The times have changed and we now have literally a multitude of different websites that deal with the issue.

David Cameron is coming under fierce criticism from centre-right allies in Europe for his decision to ditch mainstream ­conservatism in the EU in order to lead a new movement of Eurosceptics.

In advance of next month's European elections, the Tory leader came under fire from senior figures over his move to end 17 years of alliance with the European ­People's party (EPP), which groups the centre-right in the parliament, and to establish a caucus of "European Conservatives". In separate developments:

* Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany appeared to threaten to withhold cooperation from the Conservatives.

* Cameron's close ally, Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister, warned the Tory leader that he faced isolation. ­Reinfeldt called on Cameron to reverse his decision to quit the EPP.

* A senior Czech politician added that his liberal rightwing ODS party, a key ­Cameron partner, was having second thoughts about joining the Tories in the new caucus being plotted.

* Hans-Gert Poettering, the German Christian Democrat who presides over the European parliament, angrily described Cameron as untrustworthy.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union whose job is to implement the region's law and to drive its policy agenda, has failed abysmally in this crisis. The Commission was largely absent during the worst months of last year, and its subsequent responses fell consistently below what one would expect.

After over fifteen years of a "fierce and brutal two party-system," Spain is ready for a third moderating force to inject some reasonable and sensible discourse into Spanish politics, redress abstentionism and allow the country to embark on a new economic deal, said Sean O'Curneen, the Centro Democratico Liberal's top candidate, in an interview with EurActiv.

Launched in September 2008 with the intention of grabbing seats in the European elections, CLO is trying to portray itself as a centrist political party which will inject greater plurality into Spanish politics and re-engage people in political life. 

Stemming from the Centro Democratico e Social of Manuel Alonso, the party is well represented in local councils across the country, but has no representatives in the Spanish parliament yet.