Conclusions: Features of the 2014 European Elections in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

The European Parliament (EP) elections of 22–25 May 2014, that is, the eighth round of voting for MEPs, marked a series of outstanding firsts: this was the first voting round in which European citizens indirectly chose the European Commission President; for the first time, electoral debates between the leaders of the main competing party families at the European level were organized and broadcast on TV; Croatia, the state most recently accepted into the select club of European countries, elected its representatives for an entire mandate for the first time; these were the first European elections that took place after the lifting of all restrictions on the free movement of workers. All these factors drew reality closer to the dream of the founding fathers of the European Union (EU).