European elections: a void to fill

Like an athletics race in a deserted stadium, the campaign for the European parliamentary elections is set for a tense finish – and few except the most dedicated fans are watching.

For aficionados of European politics, next week’s vote is a rare treat. It will mark the start of the next five-year political cycle in the European Union, ushering in not just a new legislature for the 27-nation bloc but also a new European Commission, the EU’s executive arm that is one of the world’s most powerful regulatory authorities.

The remainder of the article can be read here.

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Peter Spiegel is the FT's Brussels bureau chief. He returned to the FT in August 2010 after spending five years covering foreign policy and national security issues from Washington for the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, focusing on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He first joined the FT in 1999 covering business regulation and corporate crime in its Washington bureau, before spending four years covering military affairs and the defence industry in London and Washington.

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Stanley Pignal is Brussels correspondent for the Financial Times, covering EU justice, home affairs, social developments, telecoms and the Benelux region. He joined the bureau in January 2009, having previously worked for the FT as a corporate reporter in London.

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