What are the EU elections and why should you care?

This June, Europeans will have the chance to vote in the most-important-ever elections to the European Parliament (EP).

There’s a reason that EP elections have a historically low turnout. EU politics often seem distant with no real impact on our everyday lives. The truth is, however, that today EU policies are shaping everything around us and Brussels is  turning into Europe’s primary political battlefield.

That’s why these elections matter. The stakes are high.

The increasing centralization of power in the EU means that member states and their elected governments have less and less say in shaping their own destiny. Brussels has sought to undermine border controls and dictate how many migrants member states must take; to impose a Green Deal and shift to renewable energy, even at the expense of our industries and farmers; to curtail our freedom of speech in online spaces, and to determine how we defend Europe from external threats.

On all of these issues and many more, national interests now often have to be subordinated to the will of the Brussels bureaucracy or the majority within EU institutions. In response, there is a populist rebellion brewing across Europe that could start to change the face of the EU through the June elections.

In The Stakes, our guide to the 2024 European elections, we scrutinize the institutions in Brussels and beyond—how they work, and why they’re not working—while assessing the key political issues of the day.

National sovereignty, agriculture, migration, technology, the Green Deal and more: read what is at stake, as a broad group of analysts and MEPs weigh in on the key debates. The elections will be crucial for deciding what kind of future Europe we want. The European Conservative’s election guide, The Stakes, can help to shape this vision.