Voters in 25 nations, with concerns ranging from national sovereignty to Europe's role in Iraq, begin yesterday to elect representatives to a European Parliament that is bigger and more influential than ever before.
The four-day elections are for 732 seats in the newly enlarged EU's legislative assembly, but they also are seen as a test of the popularity of governing parties.
Some expect a rebuke -- like British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour government, which took Britain into an unpopular war against Iraq. Others hope for reinforcement -- like Spain's new Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who fulfilled his electoral promise to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq.
When the EU expanded May 1, taking in 10 new members, the EU's population increased to 450 million. The voters from these new members -- eight of them former Soviet bloc countries -- will be personally endorsing the unity of a continent once divided by the Cold War, and taking their first opportunity to be represented in an assembly with growing influence across the continent.
But there is still plenty of scope for dissent. Eastern European nationalist parties that campaigned against giving up powers to join the EU are taking their message into the bloc with campaigns for seats in the assembly.
For dissenters in Western Europe, too, the ballot is a chance to express strongly held opposition to the EU's expanding involvement in their daily lives -- and in some cases opposition to membership in the bloc itself.
Although no single issue has dominated the campaign EU-wide, efforts to negotiate a constitution for the bloc have been a major issue for parties that see the charter as a threat to national sovereignty and a stepping stone to a European superstate.
The UK Independence Party, which advocates immediate British withdrawal from the EU, has been embraced by a large and enthusiastic British Euro-skeptic constituency and is expected to be a big winner.
In France, too, anti-EU parties are using the election to fight membership in the bloc.
If the skeptics needed proof that the spirit of independence still thrives in the EU, the Dutch government provided it Wednesday.
Defying orders from Brussels that all election results be announced Sunday, the Dutch, who are voting Thursday, said they would release their preliminary results that evening.
The dispute is over interpretation of a new European election law, which the Dutch say allows early publication of results if they are not the final tally.
The executive European Commission says the early release violates an EU-imposed embargo on Sunday evening that is intended to ensure fair continent-wide elections.
The European Parliament, based in both Strasbourg, France, and Brussels, Belgium, was created to provide a democratic balance to the EU's unelected commission.
It has steadily gained legislative powers since the first elections in 1979, and now has EU budget approval and influence over EU legislation on trade, environment and consumer affairs.
But many voters don't see the European Parliament as having as much effect on their lives as their national assemblies do. So they have long used their European election ballots to register a protest against their own governments -- voting for parties they wouldn't choose in national elections.
Thus, in France, the opposition Socialists are likely to benefit from a protest vote against President Jacques Chirac's economic reforms.
And Jean-Marie Le Pen's far-right party may double its seats to 10 in the EU legislature.
Voting began yesterday with Britain and the Netherlands. Today, the Czech Republic begins two days of voting and Ireland votes. Tomorrow, Malta and Latvia follow, and Italy starts a two-day vote.
On Sunday, voters cast their ballots in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden.
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