EU election 2014 European Parliament European Parliament
en English

Europe’s Delivery Gap

In the aftermath of the European Parliament election, Europe’s heavyweight national leaders are engaged in the usual horse-trading over who gets which EU positions. The much wiser approach would be to agree on policy priorities first and jobs later.

FRANKFURT – European elections seem to follow an all-too-familiar pattern; when the European Union’s citizens are called upon to express what they think, they simply do not show up. Despite the Spitzenkandidat experiment, under which European top-runners were supposed to compete for the most important EU job – the presidency of the European Commission – voters did not feel mobilized.

This should come as no surprise. According to the most recent EU-wide opinion poll, 58% of EU citizens do not believe that they can influence EU decision-making. Similarly, the marked gains made by far-right political parties in the just-completed European Parliament election were no great shock. These groups have been able to capitalize on the economic and social pain felt in many EU member states, especially given that the majority of Europeans are unconvinced that the worst is over.

Moreover, right-wing populist parties took advantage of growing public frustration with the EU itself. Many European citizens oppose the idea of “more Europe,” the mantra of EU traditionalists in the two major party families, the European People’s Party (EPP) and the Social Democrats.

https://prosyn.org/dpTZkhO