MORE than a week since the so-called 'seismic' European elections and still the earthquake rumbles. Hardly surprising, perhaps, because for the first time we have results that threaten to call into question called the whole EU modus operandi, not to mention its status quo.

It's true, Merkel, Hollande, Cameron et al attempted to hastily bandage their ailing patient during the latest summit in Brussels, but the real winners were the far-right and anti-EU parties who have swept to some remarkable and unprecedented victories.

What, then, does this mean for the future direction of European integration? Some claim we are witnessing no more than a protest vote, you know like they do after losing a council election. Others pass off EU elections as a joke, and maybe they have a point. After all, Nigel Farage aside, how many MEPs can any of us name?

But for all that, things do feel different this time and, without doubt, some seeds of radical change have been sown. UKIP surprised many by easily coming out ahead in England, in France Marine le Pen surprised few by topping the polls, while even conservative Sweden and Denmark welcomed in the far right. That would've been inconceivable a few years ago.

However, these candidates stole their victories by employing rabble rousing mandates of anti-Europeanism, anti-immigrationism and anti-elitism. None are sustainable policies, but all are symptoms of what is wrong at the moment.

Forget the recession or Euro crisis, Europe's biggest collective obsession is foreigners 'stealing' jobs and Brussels making laws.

In truth it always has been, even thought that is precisely what we all signed up for, albeit unwittingly. Romania may be the current scapegoat, but as a member state, its citizens have a fundamental right to free movement across the EU, just like the rest of us. And it's enshrined in the 1987 Single European Act.

Similarly Britain's Parliamentary supremacy was subsumed to Brussels the day we joined. As the European Court of Justice reminded lingering doubters in the case of Costa v ENEL (1964), member states 'limited their sovereignty upon membership of the Union'.

But still we bang on in ignorance about the right to make our own laws and the need to limit the number of immigrants from Europe - even though neither are possible nor are they lawful.

Politicians are the guiltiest, seemingly unable to grasp this most basic of tenets. Even our Prime Minister dwells under some delusion that he can in some way renegotiate the terms of our membership.

He can't. Ours is a fully paid up member state of the European Union and the only way to regain sovereignty would be to leave. But if we do so purely on xenophobic grounds it might spell disaster.

Unfortunately that could easily happen given a referendum, because most of us vote without reading manifestoes; without even the foggiest notion of what the real issues are. And that is the most worrying lesson to come from the European elections.

Churchill once said 'democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried.' He was proved right last week when most elected what they thought was on offer, rather than bothering to separate fact from fiction.

That gave Mme Le Pen the in road she long craved. It paved the way for Greece’s Golden Dawn to finally enter the European Parliament and, more worryingly, Germany’s National Democratic Party leader Udo Voigt at last won his seat as an MEP.

Recently Mr Voight told Reuters, “We say Europe is the continent of white people and it should remain that way.” That has a frighteningly familiar ring to it; a sentiment we all hoped had long gone, but is again gaining favour among some in Europe and producing an unseasonable chill in the air above Brussels.

Powerful though it is, the word seismic could yet prove an understatement as the future of the EU unfolds.