Astronaut tells Europeans from space: get out and vote

Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne made a call from space Wednesday for European voters to turn out for EU elections this week, saying he was voting by proxy as he would still be orbiting Earth.

"Hi, I'm Frank De Winne: a European citizen and an astronaut from the European Space Agency and I'm in space right now. Europe looks united and great from up here!" he said in a message sent out by the European institutions.

"I have arranged to vote by proxy, so I won't miss out on the next European elections while I'm up here," added De Winne, who will become the European commander of the International Space Station in October before returning to Earth the following month.

"The fact that I will become the European commander of the International Space Station is a perfect example of what Europeans can achieve when they all work together" said De Winne.

The elections matter, he said, "because Europe improves so many parts of our daily lives... from environmental protection to consumer rights, from transport safety to the free movement of people, Europe is about the well-being of its citizens".

The first-ever election message from a European astronaut in space was a joint initiative by the European Parliament, the European Space Agency, and De Winne himself.

It comes amid fears that voter apathy will lead to a high abstention rate at the trans-European polls which will start in some countries on Thursday and be completed throughout the 27-nation European Union on Sunday.

De Winne and two fellow astronauts from Canada and Russia boarded the International Space Station (ISS) last Friday from a Russian space capsule, doubling its permanent crew to six for the first time in its history.

Unlike in previous missions, the existing crew of Russian Gennady Padalka, American Michael Barratt and Japan's Koichi Wakata will stay on the station for the next months rather than returning immediately to Earth.

De Winne will become the station's commander in October when Padalka returns to Earth, the first time a Western European has been given this responsibility.

In a mission marked by a sequence of firsts, the docking also marked the first time all the partners in the station -- the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada -- will be represented at the same time on board.

The EU parliamentary elections will be the biggest trans-national polls in history, with about 375 million voters in 27 EU member states choosing from around 9,000 candidates.

A total of 736 Euro MPs will be elected to the only directly elected institution of the European Union.