Word: parliament
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...keep European nations from one another's throats. The most lasting peace forged among European signatories since then, in fact, is embodied in the European Union: 52 years and counting. Yet the citizens of Utrecht, along with the rest of Europe, appear all but oblivious to the European Parliament elections taking place between June 4 and 7 across all 27 member states...
...even know when they are," says Bas Van den Brule, a 19-year-old student, "and I probably won't vote either." Jacqueline de Kuijper, 21, admits she has no idea what the Parliament does. "I'm not sure I want to spend time finding out," she says. Such apathy has bloomed as never before across Europe. A recent Eurobarometer survey found only 34% of the 375 million eligible voters were likely to cast ballots for the 736-member Parliament, the E.U.'s only popularly elected institution. That would preserve an ignoble pattern: turnout has fallen at each successive direct...
...care? Some blame the E.U. as a whole for appearing remote, abstract, bureaucratic and dull. The Parliament itself is all of that - and less. It lacks visible personalities, and doesn't even have a ruling party or opposition to make it clear what is at stake. Instead, power is split among the big political groups - the conservatives, the liberals and the socialists - who rule largely by consensus. "This makes it difficult for people to see how their vote matters," says Karel Lannoo, CEO at the Centre for European Policy Studies think tank. "Since they do not do anything like elect...
...structure is flawed, so is the content. The Parliament is often seen as a retirement home for washed-up national politicians. Its debates often drift towards a pomposity that is only amplified by translation into 23 official languages. The body's monthly commute from Brussels to Strasbourg, a nonsensical legacy of French pride, merely reinforces suspicions that MEPs spend lots of money to scant effect. (Read: "Brussels Beats Up On Bulgaria...
...seat lower house and suffering particularly costly setbacks in their strongholds of West Bengal and Kerala. In the last government, the Communists and their allies - known collectively as the Left Front - were an influential part of the ruling coalition. Now they have been relegated to the fringes of Parliament. "This necessitates action and rethinking," said Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), the main Communist faction, speaking to reporters soon after the polls. (See pictures of Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi on the campaign trail...