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  Europe's Unpopular Elections: Who Is to Blame for EU Voter Apathy?

Europe's Unpopular Elections Who Is to Blame for EU Voter Apathy?

By Siobhán Dowling

Part 2: 'The Media Is in a Vicious Circle'

For Andrew Duff, a British MEP for the Liberal Democrats, the lack of a Europe-wide press corps is a big part of the problem. "The press is generally driven by stories that come out of Berlin and Paris," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "Brussels correspondents face a great struggle to place stories," he says.

"The media is in a vicious circle," Ricard-Nihoul of Notre Europe argues. "It assumes that European issues are boring for the citizens," and then in turn it becomes "an obstacle between the citizens and the EU."

That obstacle is quantifiable. Susan Banducci, a political scientist at the University of Exeter in Britain has conducted research on how media coverage influences turnout in the European elections. "There is a clear link between the visibility of the European Parliament in the news and the probability of voting," she told SPIEGEL ONLINE. In 2004, Banducci conducted a study of the two most popular TV news programs in each EU member state. She found a huge variation between countries. Programs in Greece, Slovakia, Denmark, Austria and Malta mention the EU in around 20 percent of their stories, compared to only 2 to 3 percent in Germany. Eurobarometer polls conducted for the European Union have repeatedly shown that most Europeans get their information from television. And Banducci says that research her team conducted in 1999 and 2004 "found that in countries that had a higher level of attention, turnout did increase."

Of course the Byzantine inner workings of the European Union don't make it particularly easy for journalists to pitch a story to their editors and producers.

Much of the work done in Brussels and Strasbourg is achieved as a result of consensus and compromise between the parliamentary groups, entities that are largely unknown to the voters. There are seven main groups around which the various MEPs coalesce. The biggest is the center-right European People's Party (EPP), followed by the center-left Party of European Socialists (PES) and the centrist, pro-free market Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). The Greens, a smaller conservative grouping, a far-left group and the euro-skeptics account for the other four. The search for common ground amongst the various groups might make sense politically, but it lacks the dramatic cut and thrust of most national parliaments. "We have to be consensual to achieve a majority and combat the council," Duff admits, "I wouldn't exaggerate it though. There are splits along partisan lines."

Ricard-Nihoul argues that the European Parliament needs to deviate from this consensual approach in order to make things more exciting. She wants the different European parliamentary groups to have the power to propose their own candidates for the post of president of the Commission, currently occupied by Jose Manuel Barroso. "This would increase politicization and personalization. You can vote for a party that supports a candidate you like for president."

'A Trans-National Constituency'

Banducci agrees. Parliament could do with a bit more confrontation. "When there is something at stake, then the media becomes interested. It then filters down to the citizens," she says. "Having the commission elected by the parliament would be a good start."

Duff disagrees, maintaining that this would turn the EU into a presidential system rather than a parliamentary one. Instead, he sees a radical shake-up of the electoral system as the best means to generate interest. Duff, who is the European Parliament's rapporteur on electoral reform, submitted his recommendations late last year. "We want a trans-national constituency across the 27 states to elect a proportion of the MEPs," he says, arguing that this would "oblige us to address the EU dimension of politics."

For Franklin of the European University Institute, another factor in the disconnect between voters and Europe is the way national governments act one way when they gather in Brussels for the Council of Ministers meetings, and then another for their domestic audiences back home. "The real decisions are made in secret. We never hear what the ministers said at the meeting," he says, adding: "It is utterly unconscionable." Franklin would like to see the council open itself up "so that no minister can come home saying 'I fought for the national interest,' with no mention of the compromise that had to be made."

However, as national governments cede more and more power to Brussels and Strasbourg they of course have a vested interest in at least presenting themselves to the folks back home as still being the key decision-makers. "National politicians don't want to give up the pretence of power," Franklin argues. "They think they can promise the earth, but the majority of decisions are made in Brussels."

For Ricard-Nihoul leaders and parties who insist on focusing on national issues are failing in their responsibility to the electorate. Especially in the current economic crisis, people have to see that "European solutions are dominant and that the EU is the only relevant level for a response."

Duff thinks EU citizens have actually become quite canny about the growing influence of the EU in their lives. People may be "extremely poorly informed about how the EU works," he says, but they are "very intelligent at understanding that integration is far greater and more important than national political parties."

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