The last time that voters elected a European Parliament, a country called the Soviet Union existed, as did a country called Yugoslavia and others called East Germany and Czechoslovakia. The Berlin Wall was approaching its 28th anniversary, Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were in power. June 1989 was the month that Chinese troops massacred pro-democracy demonstrators in Tienanmen Square, but it was also the month that Solidarity won an overwhelming election victory over the Communist Party in Poland. To some extent, it was a time of hope in Europe.Today and Sunday, Europeans are going to the polls in a rather more somber mood. A war has raged for three years in the Balkans, and all the European Union's efforts have failed to stop it. Another war in Algeria is threatening to destabilize the EU's southern flank. The western half of the continent has been suffering one of its longest ever economic recessions, and more than one in 10 workers are out of work. The EU's attempts to move toward a common currency came to grief last year, causing angry recriminations between Germany and France. Corruption scandals have decimated Italy's political establishment, leading to the formation of a government containing neo-fascists, and similar trouble is looming in Spain and Belgium. All in all, the old sense of progress has been replaced by insecurity and disenchantment.The European Parliament elections are likely to reflect and even reinforce these feelings. Parties that reject the vision of European integration embraced by Helmut Kohl, Fran?ois Mitterrand and other prominent leaders are expected to collect at least one-third of the vote. The new parliament may contain politicians from the far right, the self-styled reformed Communist left, regionalist movements and various fringe groups whose common characteristic is that they reject mainstream politics as practiced in Europe since World War Two.It is often said that elections to the European Parliament do not matter much because the institution lacks the powers of a real legislature. While it is true that the parliament is weaker than national governments and the executive commission in Brussels, one must wonder what would happen if it really became as strong as, say, the U.S. Congress. How could a parliament composed of representatives of 12 countries -- soon to be 16 and, possibly more -- function effectively?Conceivably, it could work if legislators organized themselves into transnational blocs of left, center and right and always put their allegiance to their bloc ahead of their allegiance to their country. Up to a point, that is what happens now. But with the blurring of ideological lines since 1989, and with the rise of "anti-system" political movements across Europe, it is uncertain if it can work in the future. It is quite possible that the European Parliament will one day end up paralyzed by national, regional and social divisions.Precisely because of this danger, it is a fair bet that real power in Europe will remain with national governments and unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. The ideal of a fully democratic, fully united Europe will prove to be unattainable. This does not rule out some steps toward integration, such as a currency union limited to Germany and a handful of its neighbors. But it means we shall never see an American-style United States of Europe. The death knell for that goal sounded between 1989 and 1994.