Eurobarometer has published its research (pdf) into turnout at the European Parliament elections last month. The state of the UK’s democratic debate, particularly on European issues, doesn’t come out of it very well.

Generally, the picture is of just another election, with turnout patterns similar to national elections, and the ‘usual voters’ turning up at the polls. Most people who voted said that they did so because it was a civic duty, or because they always voted. Comparatively few said that they voted to express their support for the EU as an institution.

Across the whole EU, 39% of voters voted in both the Euro elections and their most recent general elections, while 33% voted in the national elections but not for the Euros. Only 3% of voters turned out for the European elections and not for the general elections.

Two thirds of people across the EU were aware of the campaigns, and over half said they had sufficient information to vote. In the UK, only 52% of people were aware of the campaign – worse than any country other than Belgium and Bulgaria.

22% of non-voters said they hadn’t voted ‘because I never vote’ – although in the UK 39% of non-voters used that excuse, the highest in the Union[1].

Across the Union, only 4% of non-voters said that opposition to the EU was their reason for not voting. Despite suspicion that anti-EU voters would rush to the polls, across the whole Union, turnout among those who said they “felt no attachment to Europe” was only 32% (compared with 49% of those who did feel attached to Europe). It would be interesting to see UK figures for that.

In questions on attitudes to Europe, the UK’s Euroscepticism comes out clearly. The UK was the country with the lowest scores on the statements “I trust the EU institutions”, “I feel like a European citizen” and “I feel attached to Europe”. In every case, the UK answer was at least ten percentage points below the next lowest country (although, even so, more than a third of Brits agreed with the statement “I feel like a European citizen”). Interestingly, Brits are not wrapping themselves in the Union Jack – they scored second lowest on the statement “I feel attached to my country” – only Romanians feel more detached.

As with other surveys, trust in EU institutions increases with increasing education and income, as does your likelihood of voting.

[1] Except Belgium and Luxembourg, where voting is compulsory so the pool of non-voters is very small.



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