Britain's MEPs have become more remote from their electorates since the introduction of proportional representation, according to new research.

Elections to the European parliament are now fought under a party list system where each party presents the voters with a ranked list of candidates for each constituency.

The method has been criticised by some for removing candidate choice from the electorate and putting more power in the hands of party hierarchies.

And now a study by researchers at Manchester and Aberystwyth universities has concluded that MEPs are becoming increasingly focused on representing their party and are less inclined towards making individual contact with their constituents.

While the new electoral system has improved the balance of party representation in Brussels, almost half of the MEPs interviewed regarded constituency representation as a fairly minor part of their job.

"The introduction of proportional representation had substantial and immediate effects on who was elected," said the report's co-author, Professor David Farrell.

"The British contingent became more proportional in party terms and the number of parties represented rose from four to seven.

"However, there are also indications that with substantially larger Euro-constituencies, MEPs now place less importance on representing individual voters and more importance on representing their party."

The existing difficulties of keeping in contact with constituents could be exacerbated next may when the European Union takes in 10 new member states.

Britain's contingent of MEPs is likely to be reduced from its current size of 84, suggesting that those who remain will face an even bigger task.

"And that means they are even less likely to regard themselves as constituency representatives," warned Professor Farrell.

The research also found that MEPs are becoming less visible to their voters, with less correspondence than before the introduction of PR.

And at election time the need to be placed towards the top of a party list to ensure election leads to greater partisanship, according to the report.

With party members selecting the list rankings for the three main parties, the need to appeal to grassroots supporters has been increased.

Nearly three fifths of the MEPs questioned said that they saw themselves as being in parliament to represent their political party.

"MEPs increasingly see themselves as representatives of their party and their party's supporters within the region, rather than representing the whole regional electorate," said report co-author Dr Roger Scully.

"Given that a typical region will now have MEPs from several parties, this is perhaps not surprising. But it means that they spend a lot of their time communicating within their party rather than to the voters."

The authors warned that while turnout was just 23 per cent in 1999, recent trends could see it fall further in 2004.