On 20 September 1976, in its coverage of the adoption, the same day in Brussels, of the Act concerning the direct elections to the European Parliament, the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung considers the true political role of the Parliament and echoes the hopes raised in Europe by the forthcoming elections.

Former French Prime Minister, Michel Debré, opposed to any notion of supranationality, rejects out of hand elections to the European Parliament by universal suffrage.

In the January 1977 edition of the monthly publication 30 jours d'Europe, Lord Frederick Bessborough, Conservative MEP, gives his point of view on the role of the European Parliament in European integration.

In an interview with the magazine Vision, Altiero Spinelli comments on the future European Parliament to be elected by direct universal suffrage, and the possible postponement of the first direct elections, initially planned for 1978.

One year before the first elections to the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage, the federalist magazine L’Europe en formation reviews the stage in political preparation reached in each of the Member States of the European Community.

In December 1978, the monthly publication 30 jours d'Europe publishes a speech by Emilio Colombo, President of the European Parliament, highlighting the issues involved in the forthcoming and first European elections by direct universal suffrage.

‘Wedding photo of the year.’ In January 1979, with a view to the first elections to the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage, the German cartoonist, Horst Haitzinger, takes an ironic look at Parliament’s lack of powers.

In this interview, Hans-August Lücker, Member of the European Parliamentary Assembly from 1958 and then Member of the European Parliament until 1985, tells of his disappointment at the development of the role of this institution, despite the introduction of elections by direct universal suffrage to the European Parliament in 1979.