The political situation in Italy has changed greatly since the 1994 Euro-elections, making comparisons difficult, but there was general agreement that the right did well.
Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema acknowledged his socialist-led governing coalition needed to regroup after the results showed that conservative opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi's group had won most votes.
Mr Berlusconi's Forza Italia, with 25.2% of the vote, was the most successful single party out of more than two dozen fielding candidates.
Mr D'Alema's Democratic Socialists won 17.4%, a drop off of nearly four percentage points from the last national election, in 1996.
EU Commission president-designate Romano Prodi's Democratic Party was Mr D'Alema's most successful campaign partner with 7.7%, but that figure was bettered by an offshoot of the Radical Party led by EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Emma Bonino.
Her list received 8.5% of the vote, indicating she could become a factor on the national political scene despite having largely been ignored by the political establishment.
Turnout was 70.8%, nearly 4% lower than the 1994 European vote but much higher than many other EU countries.