Peilingen verwachten lage opkomst bij Europese verkiezingen (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - As the June European elections approach, a new Eurobarometer poll published by the European Commission today (7 May) shows that only half of Europeans surveyed are likely to vote.

Only one third of European citizens say they will "definitely" cast their vote, the survey says, ranging from 66 percent in Greece to 23 percent in the UK and Austria.

The survey is particularly worrying when compared to the Eurobarometer poll conducted just before the 1999 European elections.

Although the question put to the citizens was different that time - people were asked whether they "intended" to vote - the percentage was much higher, with almost seven in ten suggesting they would vote.

However, when the poll was actually carried out in 1999 only 49 percent of Europeans actually showed up at the ballots.

In the poll published today, almost one fifth of Europeans say they are "likely not to vote". In 1999, this figure was lower at 16 percent. The percentage of likely non-voters is high in Portugal (25 percent) and also in the UK (20 percent).

Support for enlargement falls sharply amonst old EU 15

Meanwhile, in both "old" and "new" member states, public support for enlargement of the European Union has fallen sharply.

Overall in the EU-15, support for enlargement has fallen by 5 points from 47 percent to 42 percent compared to the last Eurobarometer survey, held last autumn.

A dramatic decrease in enthusiasm for enlargement has taken place in Germany, where support has fallen by ten points from 38 percent to 28 percent - making Germany the most sceptical country towards enlargement.

Not so keen now

And, in the new member states, support for being part of the EU has also fallen by five percent. The same poll shows that slightly less than half (43 percent) of people in the ten countries that joined the EU last week are supportive of their countries' membership.

In fact, for the first time, the ten new states are less supportive of EU membership than the 15 old countries, where support for membership lies at 48 percent.

Sharp drops took place in Cyprus (-17%), Latvia (-13%), Slovakia (-10%), Hungary (-10%) and Poland -10%).

The Eurobarometer poll was conducted between 20 February and 28 March and surveyed 16,216 people on a range of EU issues.