EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Jose Manuel Barroso looks set for another term as European Commission chief even as he has faced a storm of criticism for his handling of the current economic crisis and being in thrall to Paris and Berlin - condemnation that analysts say is unfair.

The 53-year old centre-right politician came to the office in 2004 on a sour note, having emerged as compromise candidate only at the 11th hour and only grudgingly supported by France and Germany.

His hosting of the Azores Summit - for supporters of the war in Iraq - in March 2003 was immediately given an unflattering rake-over at a time when the launch of the unpopular war was still fresh in the public mind.

He then bungled what could have been a relatively straightforward first encounter with the European Parliament by misjudging the mood of MEPs over an Italian commissioner nominee whom they felt was unsuitable. As the drama unfolded, a small rebellion turned into outright mutiny that threatened to sink the Barroso commission before it even began.

What Europe do you want? On Tuesday, May 26, at 9:45 a.m., CEST, SPIEGEL ONLINE, NRC Handelsblad and Politiken will host an online town hall meeting with Hans-Gert Pöttering, president of the European Parliament. He will be answering readers' questions sent in by e-mail or submitted during the live chat.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Christian church has in the UK, Austria and Poland spoken out against far-right parties in the EU elections, while in Sweden a fringe movement calling for internet freedoms is gaining ground.

The UK's most senior Anglican clerics, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, at the weekend urged mainstream voters to go to the ballot box on 7 June in order to keep extremist parties, such as the BNP, out of the European Parliament.

Mountain cross: the church says low turnout could see far-right parties score high

"It would be tragic if the understandable sense of anger and disillusionment with some MPs over recent revelations [on expenses] led voters to shun the ballot box," the pair said in a statement, adding that "some parties" want to exploit "fear and division within communities."

The Austrian church criticised what it calls the exploitation of Christian symbols after the leader of the far-right FPO party recently held up a cross at a demonstration against a Muslim centre. The FPO's election platform uses the slogan "The West in Christian Hands."

The cross "must not be misused as a fighting symbol against other religions," the Archbishop of Vienna, Roman Catholic cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, said.

The latest poll into who will vote in the upcoming European parliamentary elections on June 4-7 makes for some pretty grim reading. It seems that voter apathy is growing as knowledge and interest in the EU shrink. 

A study carried out across the EU on behalf of the French Political Innovation Foundation shows that 18 percent of those surveyed said they were ' not at all interested' in the June poll, whilst 35 percent said they were 'rather not interested'. The same number said they were 'rather interested' but only a meager 11 percent said they were 'very interested'.

 

The data coming in on voter apathy across the European Union is turning unspoken but common knowledge into hard facts: the EU elections hold no interest for a huge number of the bloc's citizens.

 

What is less clear are the reasons why. Attempts have been made to connect the expected dramatically low turn-out with frustration over the incompetence of ministers, the mounting corruption scandals and the perceived idleness that voters associate with the overblown bureaucracy many believe the EU has become.