Special fund set up to counter election apathy

Date: 10/12/1998

By Gareth Harding

THE European Parliament is stepping up its efforts to boost voter turnout in next year's Euro-poll in a bid to reverse the steady fall in public interest since the first direct elections were held in 1979.

For the first time, the assembly is creating a special 5.5 million ecu fund to be spent on increasing awareness of the 10 June poll. In addition, the political parties are to get an extra 1 million ecu between them to publicise their campaigns.

As part of its efforts to raise the profile of the Parliament and encourage a higher turnout, the assembly is planning a major publicity drive in the run up to polling day using videos, posters, pamphlets and other marketing tools.

This will flag up the major issues at stake in the elections, emphasise the growing power of the Parliament in EU law-making and highlight the institution's success stories over the past five years.

The push by MEPs to persuade more people to vote reflects mounting concern over the steady fall in turnout since direct elections to the assembly were first held two decades ago. From a high of 63% in 1979, participation has fallen in every poll since, reaching an all-time low of 57% in the last elections in 1994.

The institution's perceived remoteness is seen as one of the key reasons why the Strasbourg-based assembly has failed to spark much interest amongst the electorate. It has also suffered from a serious image problem in recent years.

Despite a dramatic increase in its powers since the late 1980's, the EU's only directly elected body is still regarded by the public as the weakest of the Union's three major institutions, and allegations that its members are abusing the assembly's generous expenses system have certainly not helped its image.

MEPs hope that last week's vote to close loopholes in the expenses system to prevent such abuses in future will go some way towards restoring voter confidence in the institution.

Likewise, the ratification of the Amsterdam Treaty next spring is expected to lead to greater interest in the body's decisions. The new EU treaty significantly increases the Parliament's leverage over legislation and finally puts pay to the popular stereotype of the assembly as an expensive talking shop. Officials say that the information campaign for next June's elections will focus on the fact that the Parliament is "an assembly which has come of age".

A spokesman for President José Maria Gil-Robles said that "if people understand that the Parliament has great powers over legislation which affect their daily lives, they will be more interested in voting".

As well as providing information about the powers of the assembly, the publicity campaign will focus on issues - such as the environment, employment, economic and monetary union, and consumer protection - where parliamentary action has been seen to make a difference.

The Parliament is, however, wary of producing standardised promotional material for use in all 15 member states which could prompt accusations that it has failed to respect national identity and take account of the political situation in individual EU countries. "We are convinced that from Brussels you cannot speak in one language for 15 countries," said one official.

The bulk of the publicity campaign will therefore be coordinated by the Parliament's offices in the national capitals. It will also be targeted at specific groups of voters - such as women and young people - who tend not to vote.

Parliamentary officials are optimistic that the decline in voter turnout can be reversed in next June's polls.

However, Vice-President Georgios Anastass-opoulos is more cautious. "One would be naïve to think the problem can be surmounted over the next six months," he told European Voice this week.

In the long-term, the Parliament is looking at moving the elections from mid-June - which coincides with summer holidays in some northern countries and a three-day public holiday in Portugal - to May. Ways of personalising the campaign are also being considered.

Last week, ex-Commission President Jacques Delors told a packed parliamentary meeting that in order to succeed in future, Euro-election campaigns had to focus on personalities not parties. But Gil-Robles dismissed Delors' suggestions as unfeasible in the short-term.