Talking about compulsory voting

An increasing proportion of the political decisions that affect European lives are now made in Brussels' European Parliament rather than in the national parliaments of the member countries but there is a great reluctance among voters to take the international body seriously. In the election over the last week across the 27-member union, just 42.9 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots. That was the lowest turnout since direct elections began in 1979 and in Slovakia a mere 19.6% of those eligible went to the polls. I notice that there is now talk of trying to make voting compulsory but with support for European wide democracy at such a low level politicians advocating that would surely be signing their own retirement notices.