ABSTRACT
The decision to establish direct elections to the European Parliament (EP) was intended by many to create a direct link between the individual citizen and decision making at the European level. However, one study did demonstrate that government losses in EP elections were greater than would be expected. The important question to answer, though, is whether such concerns are more important for vote choice in EP elections than they are in other national elections. Turnout is now very low, pitifully so in some countries, indicating that these elections have failed to engage the European citizen. The difference between EP turnout and that in adjacent general elections has not increased. Nor is there any good evidence to suggest that this low turnout is signaling something specific about the European Union, other than that, for voters and probably for parties and the media, Europe is less interesting even than everyday national politics.
