THE LAUNCH OF THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ELECTIONS

The launch of the campaign for the European Parliament elections is greeted with anxiety in many European papers, over fears that turnout may be hit by voter apathy and contempt.

"European voters on both sides of the former Iron Curtain will make history next week when they cast ballots in the first transcontinental elections for the European Parliament," says the Paris-based International Herald Tribune.

But the paper fears that the turnout for the election "may be a flop", despite the Parliament's increasing importance in legislating Europeans' everyday lives.

One of the reasons for this, some fear, may be that domestic issues muddy the water for voters.

In France, Le Monde believes that the country's "unforeseen domestic polemics" have caused the election campaign to suffer "more than most".

BBC