Voting age and trends

According to EU law, voting procedures for the European Parliament elections must be the same in all member countries. However, this has never happened since the first European elections in 1979. Each member state has its own voting procedures. Even the legal voting age is not harmonised. In all member states, the minimum age for voting is 18 years with the exception of Austria where 16 year-olds are entitled to vote.

The rates of participation in the European elections have been declining rapidly since the first first directly elected parliament. Taking a recent Eurobarometer survey as evidence, residents of the United Kingdom are the least interested and the least well informed of all 27 EU countries. However, Stuart Wilks-Heeg suggests that, thanks to the expenses scandal, the turnout tomorrow may be a record for European elections in the UK.