All about the European Parliament elections 2019

In other words, only one-in-10 EU citizens were willing to admit they did not understand how the EU worked.

Those taking the survey were also asked to say if it was true that members of the European Parliament were directly elected by the citizens of each EU member state.

Strikingly, 15 percent said they did not know, while 26 percent said this was wrong: (incorrectly, because MEPs are, in fact, directly elected by voters in each member state).

The result indicated that quite some work is still needed to inform EU citizens of how the EU works - an all-the-more pressing need as around 350 million European citizens will have the right to go to the polls in May 2019.

This magazine is meant to help readers prepare for the European Parliament elections, no matter their level of knowledge.

The magazine explains what the EU's only directly-elected body does, why its MEPs are dividing their time between Brussels and Strasbourg, and how much they are paid.

It also explores the ways in which Russia is trying to influence the outcome, and how the election result could help determine the next president of the European Commission.

Most of all, it encourages people to go out and vote.

Since the first EU elections in 1979, the voter turnout figure has, sadly, known only one direction: down. At the same time, the impact of EU politics on people's daily lives has dramatically increased.

Whether you are a federalist, a moderate, or wholly opposed to EU integration, the right to vote is the source of envy in many countries across the world. Let's use it.