EU ROUND-UP: bad news for most governments
Malta
Malta, the smallest of the 25 EU member-states and one of the newest, having only joined on May 1st, bucked the trend of low voter turnout.
An estimated 82 per cent of the electorate cast their votes on the Mediterranean island, compared to an EU average of just 44.9 per cent. But in other respects, the Maltese voters were at one with other voters. The opposition Labour Party hammered the ruling Nationalist Party, with the government conceding early in counting that the opposition would win a majority of the country's five seats in the European Parliament.
Cyprus
The EU's other Mediterranean island, Cyprus, was not far behind Malta, with a turnout of 70.4 per cent. This was down on the turnouts of 90 per cent or above regularly seen in Cypriot national elections - where not voting can be punishable with fines or even jail. With no such penalties applicable to Sunday's EU vote, some Cypriots chose to hit the beach.
Spain
With over 90 per cent of the votes counted, Spain's Socialists confirmed their position as the country's number one party by winning 43.7 per cent and 25 seats in the new European Parliament, Jane Walker reports from Madrid. They were followed by the Popular Party (PP) who won 40.8 per cent and 23 seats. The remaining six seats will be divided between the United Left (IU) and two regional parties.
Only 45 per cent of Spaniards bothered to turn out to vote yesterday, making it the election with the lowest turnout since Spain recovered its democracy in 1975, although it was a higher turnout than most other European countries.
Many voters believed the campaign concentrated more on the results of the March 14th general elections which resulted in a surprise 10 percentage point defeat for PP at a time when the country was still stunned by the Atocha train bombings which had taken place only three days earlier.
The two major parties tried to run the European elections as a re-run of the general elections. The Socialists wanted to prove that the results reflected the genuine mood of disapproval of the PP, who had governed for eight years and had antagonised much of the country by joining the Bush-Blair alliance in Iraq and had also manipulated information on the Madrid bombing.
PP claims the Socialists used the massacre to turn the mood of the country against them.
The Baltic States
Voters across the Baltic states dealt a blow to their respective ruling parties in the region's first elections to the European Parliament, reports Dan McLaughlin.
Amid widespread apathy and uncertainty over the Parliament's role and powers, and fears that EU membership would bring higher prices, people in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania took the opportunity to register their discontent with governments that are looking a little shakier this morning.
In voting on Saturday, exit polls suggested that Latvians had rejected the ruling Green and centrist coalition to hand opposition parties a resounding win, with the right-wing Fatherland and Freedom Party taking about 30 per cent, and the centre-right New Era about 20 per cent. Turnout was around 40 per cent.
In Estonia, only 26 per cent of voters turned out, but exit polls suggested they had given enough backing to left-wing opposition groups to rattle the rightist Res Publica Party led by the Prime Minister, Mr Juhan Parts.
Early results suggested his supporters may only take one of six available seats in Brussels. Not even the presence on Res Publica's party list of supermodel Carmen Kass - Estonia's richest woman - could rally support for the EU or bring out voters in force.
In Lithuania, turnout benefited from a simultaneous vote to find a new president. A left-wing party recently established by Russian businessman Viktor Uspakich was the main winner in the race for the country's 13 seats, at the cost of the ruling Social Democrats.
His party, which pledges to defend the interests of Lithuania's poor in Brussels, was expected to win about 23 per cent, with the Social Democrats trailing on about 13 per cent.
Italy
Silvio Berlusconi has suffered a setback in the elections, with his centre-right coalition losing ground to various centre-left groupings, according to an exit poll.
The four-party government coalition took between 39-48 per cent of the vote, compared to between 41-52 per cent for various centre-left parties, according to a Nexus poll released on Italy's main television stations.
Mr Berlusconi's own Forza Italia Party remained the largest single force in Italy, but saw its share of the vote drop to between 20.5-23.5 per cent, from 25.2 per cent at the last European elections in 1999 and 29.4 per cent in 2001 general elections.
The main centre-left bloc, grouped around the Olive Tree Alliance, won between 30.5 per cent and 33.5 per cent of the vote, while other leftist parties won up to 18.5 per cent, according to Nexus.
The election campaign centred around two main themes: Iraq, where Italy has stationed 2,700 troops, and the economy.
And...
Slovenia's opposition centre-right parties did well, winning at least four of the country's seven seats in the European Parliament, according to exit polls.
In Hungary, voter turnout ended up lower than even skeptical estimates, according to the national elections office, OVI. It said only 36.89 per cent of Hungary's more than eight million voters had cast a ballot by 6:30 p.m. local time, a half-hour before polls closed.
Participation appeared set to be far less than the 73.5 per cent in the 2002 general elections and the 45.6 per cent in a referendum in April 2003 on joining the EU.
Political analyst Andras Giro-Szasz said low turnout was a sign the country's "two great parties (the ruling socialist MSZP and the opposition conservative Fidesz) were not able to mobilise their voters".
In Poland, voters were preoccupied with the country's domestic political crisis, and there were signs that fewer than one-third of Poles bothered to vote.