The “Eurofatigue” of the North

Martina Rydman*

The European Union’s Parliamentary elections which spread across 25 countries and represent on of the world’s biggest exercises in democracy, produced no surprises. Similarly to many of the previous ones, the 2004 elections were largely fought on national issues and were marked by low turnouts and disinterest in the outcome. Surprisingly, this was true even as regards to the new member states.
The two main issues concerning the European Parliamentary elections since 1979 have been: first, the fact that the vote that has been given has hardly been a reflection of peoples’ opinion on Europe or the performance of the Parliament or the Union. Rather, the results have been a reflection of the people’s opinion on their incumbent governments and the elections as a whole have been seen as an opportunity to express their dissatisfaction with these.
The second concern has been the low turn-out or voter apathy. Few have any idea of the purpose of the elections and are totally unaware of the impact that their vote might have. Some suggest that the low turnout is a sign that people are so satisfied by the parliament’s performance that they see no real need for participation or voicing an opinion. This however, is very unlikely, having seen that in polls the support for Europe has been decreasing during the past years.
In this year’s European Parliamentary election in Finland the turn-out, at 41% was up from the last elections (31.4%), largely thanks to a media drive urging the Finns to go to the voting polls. However, the result is still below the EU average of 45.5% and reflects no real new born enthusiasm for the EU or the European Parliament. Like in most other European nations such as Britain, Italy and Germany, in Finland the main opposition party, the Conservative National Coalitional Party took the largest share of the vote with 23.7%. However, they remained behind the combined results of the two main parties in Finland's centre-left coalition government.
The results translate into three of Finland's 14 seats in the European Parliament for the Social Democrats, and four each for the Centre Party and the National Coalition Party. In other words, very little changed since the 1999 elections. Again, the biggest winners were public personalities that could be easily identified by the voters such as the former Prime Minister, Anneli Jaatteenmaki, who was forced to resign last year as a result of accusations of using leaked documents on Iraq to win an election.
What these results are really a reflection of is the fact that most Europeans are still positively uneducated about the functioning of the union and unaware of the effect that it has on their lives. European politicians have failed to educate their population about European policies, and how these relate to them. Instead, national politicians have distanced themselves from the European project and often explain European events or negotiations in terms of national gains or losses. Rarely does the explanation include a reference to how a new regulation or treaty might affect the functioning of the Union positively or how it is made more efficient.
The most disconcerting point about this is that we are witnessing this evident ‘eurofatigue’ at the moment when Europe is becoming both increasingly powerful and increasingly visible. In the past, many of Europe’s achievements were concluded behind closed doors and the long-term transformations – the single market, the opening of borders, enlargement – to some extent necessitated a quiet gradual process.
However, today Europe is becoming increasingly powerful and has made some striking progress in the fields of foreign and security policy and justice and home affairs. Europe has been active in Sarajevo, Kosovo and Congo. It no longer stands for a simple economic union, but especially with the signing of the new Constitution, the EU and its actions affect the core values of all EU member states and their citizens. Therefore, it has become increasingly urgent that European nationals understand what is happening in Europe and take part in the way it evolves. Otherwise it risks losing its legitimacy in the eyes of the European population.
A democratic Europe cannot be achieved purely by holding European Parliamentary Elections. National politicians should assume the responsibility for educating the people as well as campaigning for their own success. Without a popular understanding of the events and the way the Union impacts the life of its citizens the questions of democratic deficit in Europe and the legitimacy of the Union will not be resolved.

Helsinki, June 23rd 2004


* Martina Rydman is a researcher at the Foreign Policy Centre (European Desk) and external collaborator of Vision on several projects about Europe. She has a degree in History and French from Oxford University and an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics. She has previously worked on projects on European security in South Eastern Europe in Brussels.


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The “Eurofatigue” of the North