Voter turnout could hit a record low in the June elections to the European Parliament, despite its powerful influence on our daily lives. Professor Simon Hix of the London School of Economics (LSE) suggests ways of making the election more than a mid-term vote on national governments.

At the time of the first European Parliament elections in 1979 there was widespread enthusiasm for this experiment in transnational democracy.

Sadly these contests have not lived up to their billing. Few people vote and those that do vote are mainly motivated by national rather than European politics.

If you are a UK voter, when you go to the polls on 4 June, will you be thinking about Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Nick Clegg, or Alex Salmond? Or will you be thinking about Joseph Daul, Martin Schulz, Graham Watson, or Dani Cohn-Bendit (the party leaders in the European Parliament)? Exactly!