My feeling is that it would certainly help matters if MEPs* were elected by a first-past-the-post ballot, rather than by the sort of party list system that is commonplace in continental parliaments. As it is, there is little to link an MEP to his/her constituents, and the powers of patronage available to parties mean that party discipline can be enforced ruthlessly.

*British MEPs, at any rate. Things might be different elsewhere in Europe.

Firstly, the first past the post system is only usable in the UK, the only country with a solid bipartism ; it would be unworkable in the rest of the EU.

Secondly, a direct link between constituent and MEP sounds good, but it has one major fault, which is the prominence of pork. Think about how hard it will be to reform the PAC if the 100 or so rural MEPs are really unwilling to do anything about it. I prefer party discipline, at least in the multiparty environment common in most of Europe. Only a handful of parties in the European Parliament are represented by more than 30 MEPs anyway.

The bigger problem is that the press, and because of that, the European public, doesn’t give a damn about the European Parliament. It means one doesn’t build his political career much by being a MEP (even the European Commission isn’t linked to the Parliament, unlike the cabinet - parliament relationship of most countries); and that, at least in France, the European Parliament election is a national election done mostly on national themes, rather than on European policies.