Britons lead growing wave of EU vote apathy: survey

(BRUSSELS) - EU parliamentary elections could see record low turnout, with only a third of eligible voters planning to vote in the June poll, and even less in eurosceptic Britain, an official survey showed Tuesday.

The Eurobarometer study carried out in January-February across the 27 European Union nations shows falling confidence in the EU institutions, with just 34 percent of the 27,218 citizens polled currently intending to vote.

The conclusions of the unreleased survey, obtained by AFP, stress the results are too early to indicate the level of turnout for the June 7 elections throughout Europe.

However 53 percent of those polled, effectively declared themselves "not interested" in the European elections, while 62 percent said there was no reason to vote as doing so would change nothing.

Fifty-five percent said the European Parliament, made up of elected representatives from each member state, "does not deal sufficiently with problems that concern me".

Thirty percent of British voters said they definitely will not vote and a mere 22 percent said they would.

Abstention rates could also be high in Italy, where only 30 percent of electors said they would definitely vote, Spain (27 percent), Portugal (24 percent) and the Czech Republic (26 percent).

The Czech voting intentions are a new embarrassment as the Czech Republic currently holds the EU's rotating presidency and has already seen its national government toppled while at the European helm.

Much higher participation in the EU elections can be expected in Belgium, unsurprisingly as voting is obligatory.

However even in the country which hosts the main EU institutions and where non-voters face a possible fine, only 70 percent said they were set to vote.

There were also strong majorities of definite voters in Luxembourg (62 percent) and Denmark and Malta (both 56 percent).

At the 2004 elections 45.7 percent of electors went to the polls, a record low and four points down on the figures in 1999.

The number of people planning to vote this time has been dropping already this year, down three points from the 37 percent recorded in late 2008.

The economic crisis and the growing unemployment levels are foremost in the minds of disaffected voters.

A total of 57 percent, 10 points up on the last survey, put unemployment high on their list of concerns, followed by inflation and the cost of living (52 percent).

Confidence in the parliament, which has chambers in Brussels and Strasbourg, fell to 45 percent, down six points on the last survey, with confidence in the European Commission -- the EU's executive arm -- down to 42 percent.

The EU parliamentary elections will have no effect on the commission which is an unelected body.

However, the low level of support for the commission is not good news for current EU Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso who is seeking a second term in office.