European Parliament election to be launched

PanARMENIAN.Net - Elections to the European Parliament will be held in 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will be elected to represent some 500,000,000 Europeans.



The voting will launch on June 4 in Great Britain and Holland (97 MPs), on June 5- in Ireland and Czechia (12 MPs), June 6 - Cyprus, France, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Slovakia and Czechia (54 MPs), June 7 - Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Finland, France, Sweden, Estonia (561 MPs).



On the eve of voting, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Europe citizens to participate in the voting. In their joint statement, leaders of two major European states, emphasized that a strong European Parliament will help overcome financial crisis.



Sarkozy and Merkel are concerned about the fact that only 43% of Europe citizens will participate in the voting.



30 years ago only two -thirds of Europeans, who had a voting right, participated in the elections. Currently, upon EU expansion, 375 million are given the right to vote. Still only few of them are interested in the elections.



According to opinion poll results, only half of France citizens will participate in the elections. Less than a third of Great Britain and Poland citizens will vote.





Many Europeans believe Euro parliament to be an expensive and ineffective institution, useless to common people. Some are annoyed by MEPs permanents moves between Brussels and Strasburg.



Good attendance should be expected only in two states: Belgium and Cyprus. The only reason is, perhaps, that voting is obligatory and fines are being imposed on those who failed to participate.



Ruling right -of -center parties in Germany, France, Italy and Poland are commanding the lead.

Their leadership will somewhat drop after British conservators leave the group, to form a new faction along with euroskeptics from Czechia and Poland, Russian BBC Service reported.