The four-day election of the European Parliament (EP), first of its kind since the latest roundof enlargement of the European Union (EU), has drawn to an end, with a great potential impact on the way of politics works among the 25-member bloc.

The latest provisional results of the EP election show that theGroup of European People's Party and European Democrats (EPP-ED) has grabbed 276 seats out of a total of 732, ensuring that it continues to be the biggest political group in the EU legislature.

The Socialist Group garnered 201 seats, securing its place nextto the EPP-ED.

The election process was characterized by a low turnout, rulingparty losses and a slow rise of Eurosceptics.

The turnout has been on the decrease since 1979 when direct EP election was introduced, with the rate having plummeted from 63 percent in 1979 to the current low of 45.5 percent. The new memberstates recorded a surprisingly low turnout. A 16.6 percent turnoutwas reportedly registered in Slovakia, nearly four percentage points lower than that of Poland, the largest of the 10 newcomers.

"The rate of participation in the new member states is highly unsatisfactory. A huge effort to mobilize resources and energy is needed to put Europe back at the center of political debate in these member states. This is a responsibility that the European institutions have no intention of shirking," according to a statement issued by the European Commission in the wake of the elections.

Another point of focus is that ruling parties in some member states suffer losses, heavy losses in some cases, as a result of their staunch support for the Iraq war. Among them are the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy and Portugal. The bitter fact of their ground-losing experience in the EP and local elections wouldprobably prompt them to adjust their policies towards the war in Iraq.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged that Britain's role in the Iraq invasion had cast a "shadow" over the polls.

"With only a few local election results in England and Wales tocome, Labor has lost 461 seats and eight councils, including Newcastle, Swansea and Leeds," a BBC report said Friday.

Meanwhile, anti-EU parties had their best results in the elections. The Independence Party in the United Kingdom took 12 seats in the EP against 27 for the Conservatives. In Poland, the Catholic anti-EU League of Polish Families won the second place among the parties and 10 seats.

The voter apathy across the EU and skepticism dismay European leaders struggling to make the enlarged EU work.

However, the EP election, held against the background of a newly-enlarged EU, high-speed EU integration, and the growing importance of the EP, is also offering new possibilities of cooperation between different political groups and between old andnew member states.

Judging from the elections results, the EPP-ED will continue toplay a leader role in EP affairs.

"It has always been our ambition to be the leading force in Europe - not just numerically but in terms of presenting the electorate with a clear vision," President of the EPP Wilfried Martens told reporters here Monday.

"We as EPP will now make sure that our views on the future President of the Commission counts in the discussions taking placein the European Council," he said.

The surprise gains of Eurosceptics and a widespread apathy about politics will also stimulate EU leaders to reconsider the challenges ahead and prompt them to formulate strategies beforehand.

All in all, the election results will ensure that the EU will continue to trudge on the way of enlargement and integration, botheconomically and in political and security fields. However, the changes brought about by the latest election, though not likely tochange the whole political road map altogether, is surely to have its impact felt in the process of EU political decision making in the years to come.

Source: Xinhua