ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on voting behaviour in European Parliament (EP) elections and the effects of these elections on national politics. It evaluates the role of these elections in creating a 'crisis of legitimacy' for the European Union. The introduction of elections to the EP in June 1979 was a deliberate attempt by European leaders to give citizens a direct voice in the policy-making activities of the European Economic Community and to strengthen its democratic credentials. Britain and Northern Ireland have quite different electoral systems for European elections than for national elections. Europeans vote differently in national and European elections. The reasons why some parties lose and others win in EP elections: voters defect from the parties that they normally vote for European elections and higher levels of abstention may affect some parties more than others. A variety of developments has increased the salience and visibility of European policies to individual citizens.
