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EU governments wary as parliament vote nears end
Sat Jun 6, 2009 10:44pm EDT
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By Timothy Heritage
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union completes a European Parliament election on Sunday which is expected to embarrass governments struggling to combat the effects of the global economic crisis.
Voting will take place in 19 countries on the fourth and final day of the election, in which the other seven EU member states have already finished voting.
Although centrist parties are expected to remain the dominant forces in the 736-member assembly, which shapes many EU laws and authorizes the EU budget, some far-right parties could make gains if the turnout is particularly low.
The parliament will start releasing results at 2000 GMT (3 p.m. EST) after the last ballot station closes. Exit polls from voting in the Netherlands worried EU leaders by showing gains for a far-right party.
"It doesn't look like the elections are going to be a triumph or a grand moment for European democracy," said Thomas Klau of the European Council on Foreign relations.
"National governments have set the perception that Europe is pretty useless by not being able to deliver a sufficiently strong and compelling and united message in the midst of the biggest economic crisis since the 1930s."
Opinion polls before the election began suggested fewer than half the 375 million electorate would vote.
Many voters are worried by rising unemployment and say the EU has done too little, too late to tackle the economic crisis, although it eventually agreed a fiscal stimulus plan which poured in money to try to revive the economy.
Others say the EU is too distant and has little impact on their daily lives. Some simply do not understand a system in which the parliament shares power with the executive European Commission and a Council of EU heads of state and government.
VOTING ON NATIONAL ISSUES
Many voters were expected to vote on domestic issues, which is bad news for several national governments.
Britain's Labor Party, mired in a scandal over parliamentarians' perks, expects a drubbing.
Voters also are likely to punish Ireland's Fianna Fail for failing to protect the once thriving economy and it could lose one European Parliament seat to the Libertas party which opposes EU's Lisbon reform treaty.
Other countries where governing parties could suffer defeats include Spain, Greece, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
Germany's voting will test the waters before a national election in September and French President Nicolas Sarkozy hopes a good performance by his ruling UMP party can be used as evidence that the French people back his policies. Continued...
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