Well - the European Parliament is repeatedly sidelined and outvoted by the Council and Commission. That's crap. Just like the fact that the Union in the Bundesrat massively obstructs legislation in the Bundesrat. Both have their causes in the political systems: the Commission and the EU Council are also - admittedly very indirectly through the national governments and their appointed representatives - democratically legitimized. So far so bad.
But what is crystal clear: poor voter turnout in EU elections won't convince the people who already don't take Europe seriously in national governments that the EU Parliament deserves more attention. And we voters have that in our hands: if voter turnout is correspondingly higher, if voters actually treat the election as such, then eventually even the last office jockey in the government apparatus won't be able to ignore it.
Of course, the fact that Commission members and various councils have distinguished themselves through corruption and incompetence is a problem. But that needs to be fixed where it originates - in the respective countries. Because German representatives in the various bodies were sent by our own government.
So don't vent your frustration about the nonsense of politicians in the various governments on the EU Parliament. On the contrary: that should be an incentive to show that as a citizen you do value the EU Parliament. And the best way to do that is through participation in the election. Better to cast an invalid ballot than not to go, because voter turnout itself is a statement. And a statement that says I don't give a damn will definitely not change anything for the better. At Der Schockwellenreiter there's the original article.