% participation and , at the other extreme , Slovakia with 19.64 %.
What this shows is that , back in 2009 , we had not yet found the key to unlock the hearts and minds of the voters , to ensure that they would see Members of the European Parliament as their representatives in decision-making at the EU level .
European electoral law , in spite of the efforts of the European Parliament , continues to be unfinished business and , as in 2009 , voters in 2024 will do their European job within a variety of national electoral frameworks . It will take many more years , especially in relatively young European democracies , for people to stop seeing the EU as a political construct based on cooperation between national governments . In both 2004 and 2009 , national electoral templates weakened the European legitimacy of the elections , making them devoid of a European dimension . It took us 10 more years to start seeing the European elections as an inherent part of the European political landscape with a growing number of truly European issues dominating the campaigning processes , and forming a European public .
In both the 2004 and 2009 elections , the European Parliament was rather unsuccessful in promoting itself as the only directly elected European institution whose power and impact on citizens ’ lives had been seriously expanded since the direct elections in 1979 .
The 2009 elections were also , in a sense , a check on the pulse of the new enlarged Union . Some politicians , observers and promoters of a small EU considered the outcome of the bold geopolitical decision of 2004 as an artificial implant that would be rejected by the EU ’ s body . However , low participation in the election by citizens of new Member States did not have any impact on the qua-
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