As European elections loom, parties struggle for attention

A man visits the plenary room of the European Parliament during an open day in Strasbourg May 4, 2014. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - In a little over two weeks, in a vast exercise spread over four days and 28 countries, as many as 350 million Europeans will go to the polls to vote in elections to the European Parliament, the EU's only directly elected body.

As celebrations of democracy go, it approaches the United States, Brazil or India for scale, at least in terms of numbers - an opportunity for huge swathes of Europe's population to determine who will shape the continent for years to come.