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Czech leaders join their EU colleagues in Brussels this week, for a summit expected to be dominated by tough talks on the planned European Constitution. However even if the EU does manage to hammer out a compromise, the document's future is far from assured. Many governments - including the Czech government - have hinted they will put the draft to their people in a referendum. But could this be inviting failure, in the wake of European Parliament elections characterised by apathy on one hand and success for Eurosceptics on the other?

One of the possibilities for such a low voter turnout at the European Parliament Elections over the weekend may have been due to competing events. The 2004 International Brass Band Music Festival drew many to the Central Bohemian town of Kolin. Kay Grigar was there.

The governing coalition led by Czech Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla was soundly defeated at the weekend in this country's first-ever European parliamentary elections. But anger against incumbent governments and a shift to the right were not unique to the Czech Republic.

Both rightist and leftist opposition parties beat the ruling centre-left coalition in the European Parliament election at the weekend, just weeks after the Czech Republic joined the European Union. With all votes counted, the parliamentary opposition parties won 15 seats to just four for the coalition. The left-of-centre Social Democrat party won just two of 24 seats on offer.

The Czech Republic's first ever European Elections saw two non-parliamentary parties win enough votes to be represented in the European Parliament - the Independents (NEZ), grouped around former TV magnate Vladimir Zelezny, and the European Democrats (ED), which have joined forces with the Coalition of Independent Candidates (SNK). The bigger winners of the two are the latter grouping, winning 11 percent of the vote. Former Czech ambassador to Kuwait Jana Hybaskova is one of their three future Euro-deputies:

With thirty percent of support, the opposition right-of-centre Civic Democrats are clearly the winners of the European parliamentary elections. Jan Zahradil, will be one of the nine Czech Civic Democrats spending the next five years in Brussels:

In the first ever European Parliament elections in the Czech Republic, the largely unreconstructed opposition Communist Party took second place with 20.26 percent, or six seats out of the 24 available for Czech Euro-MPs. Pavla Horakova asked the Communists' number one candidate, Miloslav Ransdorf, why he thought his party was so successful in the election.

In the past four days, over forty percent of the electorate in the twenty-five European Union member states went to the polls to elect new members to the European Parliament. Just a week before the elections, the EU commissioner for enlargement Gunter Verheugen warned voter apathy could result in the election of anti-EU factions: "I must say that I'm really worried about the fact that everywhere low turn out can produce strange results. There is the danger that even anti-European formations and organisations could win sufficient support to have

This election has been a historic moment for me personally. After thirteen years living as a British citizen here in the Czech Republic, this was the first time I was able to take part in a Czech election: citizens from throughout the European Union are able to vote for Czech candidates to the European Parliament, that is as long as they do not vote elsewhere. As my name was ticked on the electoral roll and my 6-year-old son stuck the envelope with my vote into the ballot box, it seemed hard to believe that only fifteen years ago the Czech Republic

It's still too early for concrete results, but what the exit polls do seem to indicate clearly, is an extremely low turnout, at around 27%. Adam Cerny from the newspaper Hospodarske noviny has been studying the polls.