class= nosel > members of the european parliament. who will shape the eu, as it faces defining challenges. so what are the issues driving this election? and what s foremost in people s minds as they head to the ballot boxes? welcome to europe votes 202a. hello and welcome from sunny lisbon, where we are coming to you from today. i m mark lowen, one of the bbc s europe correspondents. and over the course of this programme, we will bring new reports from across the continent as the election gets under way. but first, what s it all about? elections to the european parliament take place every five years. it s the only directly elected institution of the european union. shaping the bloc s policies, legislation and budgets. voting happens by proportional representation. each country gets a number of members of the european parliament, or meps, relative to its size. the meps sit in transnational groups according to their ideology. so, for example, there s left and right, eurosceptics
prime minister donald tusk is making russia a big issue at the european elections. reinforcing poland s border, he said, was about telling the enemy to stay away. and in polish schools, there are new security drills getting prepared in case of an emergency. first lesson, evacuation. the training is run by soldiers with the territorial defence. it s partly about building confidence in the armed forces, partly learning skills to cope in a crisis. the teenagers we met here had no doubts why they were doing this. we are in danger. i m worried about that the war come to poland. russia is near to us and they could attack us, i think. but fearing moscow doesn t always mean help for kyiv not to those who spoiled this grain
why haven t they been modernised in recent times? recent times? in recent years there has been a recent times? in recent years there has been a lot recent times? in recent years there has been a lot of recent times? in recent years there has been a lot of focus recent times? in recent years there has been a lot of focus on - has been a lot of focus on modernisation, a huge amount of firms have been investing in the railways. but because of the focus on big ticket projects, building the high speed train, semi high speeds are being manufactured, new high powered locomotives, all of that is in the process but but the routine tasks and i said earlier, the repeat tasks and i said earlier, the repeat tasks and i said earlier, the repeat tasks and security drills and maintenance, those seem to have been neglected. there is a big gap. we need a more comprehensive policy, modernisation yes, but is not possible to modernise in a short period of time, within two or five years. it does tak