Some 155 million EU citizens out of 350 million eligible to vote in the European elections have returned a parliament of much the same political shape as the outgoing one. Rejection of candidates representing incumbent governments and those which supported the Iraq war were definite trends across the 25 EU member-states - but they reflected domestic dissatisfactions not EU-wide ones.
This lack of a connection between European politics and citizens in the member-states, together with the low 45.5 per cent turnout, must be a real concern for EU leaders as they meet this week to conclude negotiations on the constitutional treaty. Yet they are right to persevere with them, since it addresses problems thrown up in the elections and the political processes involved.
A closer look at the results reveals a more differentiated picture. Average turnout in the 15 older member-states was down only one per cent on the last time, whereas in eight of the 10 states that joined on May 1st it was much lower - dismally so, but in keeping with a lower turnout in their national elections.
There is a clear pattern of anti-government voting in Ireland, Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia - but not in Spain and Greece, where recent elections insulated their governments from mid-term protest. Where voters had an opportunity to vote against governments supporting the war in Iraq they almost invariably took it. Although Eurosceptic parties did well in Britain, Sweden and the Czech Republic, they collapsed in Denmark; populist parties which performed well in several other states come from a rather different tradition. As Mr Pat Cox, the parliament's outgoing president said yesterday, well over 80 per cent of the MEPs returned are not Eurosceptics and share a commitment to working together, even if they differ profoundly about particular policies.
Mr Cox rightly lamented the failure of national leaders and MEPs to break out of domestic politics by creating an EU-wide campaign - but this is much easier said than done. Party organisations in the parliament remain under-developed. They did not attempt to mount campaigns throughout the EU on issues in the constitutional treaty, for example, or to put forward distinct candidates for the presidency of the European Commission. Decisions to be made at the European Council this week will have less legitimacy as a result, since they will be taken by leaders who have just been given an electoral drubbing. This could make it more difficult to reach agreement, notwithstanding the conviction that they have more to lose than gain by another negotiating failure.
The new parliament must address this political disconnectedness and endeavour to bring more politics into the EU system. It will gain more powers from the treaty, if it is agreed. But first it would have to be ratified. This task would be made easier if a vigorous campaign in its favour were to explain on a transnational basis that it is intended to clarify and simplify how the EU is governed.