The European elections, starting today, have not led to a boost in MEPs' use of the Internet and most of them still believe traditional forms of communication, such as television or newspapers, are more effective, a survey has shown.

A large majority of parliamentarians - some 75 percent - use a web page to communicate with their voters, and they also rely heavily on the Internet for research (93% use search engines daily, especially Google, to understand legislative issues).

MEPs need to make sure they use the internet extensively to communicate with their electorate, says the study

But many of them have to still open up to social online media, such as Facebook or Twitter, a survey by communication consultancy Fleishman-Hillard has found.

Thirty-three percent of MEPs use the social media networks "extensively" and 20 percent - occasionally, but 29 percent "do not use them or do not plan to use them."