Mediaboss Marketing

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's marathon parliamentary election kicked off on Thursday when Britain and the Netherlands voted, with right-wing, anti-EU parties expected to attract a surge of protest votes in many countries on a low turnout.

However, a Dutch exit poll indicated that the anti-Islam, Eurosceptic Freedom Party of Geert Wilders' - which plans to forge an alliance with France's far-right National Front - hadfallen well short of its goal of topping the poll.

After two months of campaigning that opinion polls suggest has largely failed to inspire the electorate, some 388 million Europeans are entitled to vote in 28 countries, choosing 751 deputies to represent them in the European Parliament.

Despite efforts to mobilise voters by telling them they will for the first time indirectly be choosing the next president of the European Commission, pollsters forecast a low turnout, possibly below the 2009 nadir of 43 percent.

With Europe struggling to recover from economic crisis, including record high unemployment and negligible growth, the election is expected to produce a surge in support for Eurosceptics on both the far-right and hard left.

In Britain, final opinion polls showed the UK Independence Party, which wants to withdraw from the EU and impose tighter immigration controls, topping the poll and pushing the governing Conservatives into third place behind Labour.

If confirmed, that could raise pressure on Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, who has promised an in/out referendum on EU membership in 2017 if he is re-elected next year, to take a tougher line on reducing the EU's powers.

In the Netherlands, an IPSOS exit poll on public television suggested Wilders' Freedom Party would finish fourth with 12.2 percent, behind three pro-European parties, the centre-right Christian Democrats, the centrist Democrats 66 and Prime Minister Mark Rutte's liberals.

Wilders blamed the disappointing score on a low turnout, saying that "by staying home (voters) showed their loathing for and disinterest in the European Union. The Netherlands has not become more pro-European."

In the last European Parliament elections five years ago the Freedom Party came second. Andre Krouwel, a political science professor at Amsterdam's VU University, said Wilders had failed to get enough of his supporters to turn out.

Go here to read the rest:
Far right suffers Dutch surprise as EU vote begins

African Leaders Declare #39;War #39; On Boko Haram
Nigeria and four neighboring countries vowed to wage "war" against Boko Haram at a security meeting with U.S. and European Union officials in Paris. Follow John O #39;Connor: http://www.twitter.com/Jo...

By: NewsyWorld

See the rest here:
African Leaders Declare 'War' On Boko Haram - Video

Egyptians divided over EU decision to monitor presidential race
The European Union has made a decision to monitor Egypt #39;s presidential election, reversing an earlier one to scale back its operations to just an assessment mission. The development came after...

By: PressTV News Videos

Follow this link:
Egyptians divided over EU decision to monitor presidential race - Video

Street Talk: The public #39;s opinion on the European Union
In a time of growing Euroscepticism, anti-austerity protests and distrust between countries, EU citizens have their say in the run up to voting for the Europ...

By: Zoomin.TV UK

View original post here:
Street Talk: The public's opinion on the European Union - Video

The Coalition has set the Prime Ministers salary as the upper limit for Whitehall pay, with only a small number of senior officials getting more.

But in Brussels, even mid-ranking administrators can take home more cash than the Prime Minister. The leaked papers show that EU officials in the AD 11 grade, a middle management group, have gross earnings of 112,090, including expatriation and household allowances. But because they pay just 13.4 per cent in tax, they take home 83,357 in net pay.

Those with children will earn substantially more with allowances totalling 7,000 per child each year, meaning many officials with families on lower grades will also earn more than Mr Cameron.

More than 80 per cent of EU officials get a 16 per cent of salary top-up as a perk to compensate them for living in Brussels or Luxembourg for their entire working lives, as well as for household allowances. For an AD11 middle manager, the two allowances are worth more than 1,300 a month.

Officials employed before staff reforms in 2004 are also eligible for additional benefits, taking the number of EU civil servants better paid than Mr Cameron to more than 10,000.

The fact that most Europeans will this week either not vote at all or vote for parties that want to abolish the EU highlights the growing disconnect between the voter and the European institutions, said Chris Howarth, senior policy analyst at the Open Europe think tank.

One immediate action that could establish some goodwill would be for the new European Commission to tackle the issue of overpaid and undertaxed EU bureaucrats.

However, the commission insists the salaries were needed to attract candidates from western European countries. It claims there has been a recruitment crisis, with Britain, for instance, accounting for 12.3 per cent of the EUs population but providing only 1.9 per cent of its officials.

Our headache is maintaining a broad geographical balance, said a spokesman. Were struggling to attract the brightest and best from richer member states, particularly the UK.

Nigel Farage, the leader of Ukip, said the high levels of pay showed that Mr Cameron's EU reform agenda was not working. "He just tinkered and failed. The only way to save our country's money and our democracy is to exit the EU," he said.

Read more:
10,000 European Union officials better paid than David Cameron