EU Election : Result and consequences

News –Publishing (ANP) – Anahit Khatchikian / Roni Alasor,  Brussels – 10 / 6 / 2009 – The results of the last European Parliament (EP) elections on 4-7 June could tide the hands of EU politicians and make the cooperation between the right and the left political groups difficult to achieve.

The next EP elected for the mandate 2009 - 2014 is expected to be strongly polarized between the right and the left. The culture of compromise on the biggest and important issues which existed until now between the two main political groups, European People’s Party (EPP) and the Socialist group (PSE), could be no longer possible because of the new strong dominance of the right parties in the next five years in the EP.   

The conservative group EPP will get an estimated 264 seats, while the Socialists will have round 162 seats, and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe - estimated 80 seats. The final results and names of the new MEPs will be announced after discussions in which European political group will enter each national party after the vote.  

The big winners in the elections are the centre-right parties, although green political formations also achieved success in several countries by adding 9 new MEPs to the Group of the Greens (43 in 2004 and 52 now). The social democrats took their worst ever result in several old member states, namely France, Germany, Austria, Italy and United Kingdom. Despite the recent economic crisis all over Europe, the social democrats missed their opportunity to offer clear solution for better social protection. On the other hand, the Greens could mobilize the vote of the citizens concerned by climate change, global warming, air pollution and ecological dangers.         

The elections for European Parliament are the biggest transnational elections including 27 European countries and 375 million citizens eligible to vote. The turnout of 43 % (round 162 million people) was a record law, comparing to the all European elections since 1979. At the same time it confirms the general tendency of decrease of the citizens' participation in each following European vote - while in 1979, 61.99 % of the people voted, in 1984 they were 58.98 %, in 1989 - 58.41 %, in 1994 - 56.67 % and in 1999 - 49.51 %. The last elections marked a decrease of 1.5 % comparing to 2004. It shows that throughout the years and the succeeding enlargements the European politics stands more and more far from the life of the ordinary people and the European institutions are not successful to explain their policies and achievements. The campaign for the European elections in the 27 members states shows domination of themes from the national politics instead of real European questions. The consequences of the last enlargements of EU with 12 Central and Eastern European states in 2004 and 2007 could also be reason for the general antipathy of the citizens regarding EU. From small 6 countries' union based on trade agreements, the EU is gradually being transformed in heavy bureaucracy system where taking fair decisions in respect of the common - both national and European - interest becomes almost impossible.

Now for the newly elected 736 Members of the European Parliament who will take their seats for first time on the opening ceremony of the new Parliament on 14 July in Strasbourg, a new challenges are ahead - first of all, to try to win back the confidence of the Europeans in the idea of United Europe of peace, equality and prosperity. Secondly, to find sustainable solution to the economical, social and environmental problems shaking the everyday life of the majority of the population in Europe. Only then the EU can justify the reason of its existence and for what it is spending the money of the European tax payers.