The Perfect Combination

From the Treaty of Paris to the Lisbon Treaty, each Treaty has embodied further integration in the European Union and more powers for the European Parliament. However, trust and voter turnout have declined ever since the introduction of the first direct European elections. This thesis determines the best combination of electoral and institutional factors to foster the highest possible turnout in parliamentary elections and translate this to the European elections. By using a combination of ten independent variables and one dependent variable a combination is found. This combination is discussed with interviewees from European Institutions to determine the feasibility of implementing the combination. The ‘perfect’ combination turns out to be the List PR system with multi member constituencies, with penalties for not voting and without a threshold of more than one seat. Especially the compulsory voting is unlikely to be acceptable to the citizens and politicians of the European Union.