The national and regional strategies for the development of the
Information Society in the European Union were studied in the
ESIS survey, which covered the years 1997 and 1998. Since then, a
lot has been achieved and progress towards Information Society
has been quick. However, new needs and challenges have emerged.
Member States are now re-evaluating their policy goals and
priority areas and are re-calibrating their policies and
planning new measures.
Therefore, it appeared timely to provide an overview of the
public strategies for the Information Society in the Member
States of the European Union, taking into account past, current
and proposed initiatives. The present document has been prepared
in this perspective. It records in some detail the content of
the strategies and actions plans of the European Union Member
States towards the Information Society. Of equal importance, the
overview enables the identification of the varying speed and
progress of the different countries of the European Union in
their approach to - and results in - Information Society
development. It enables the analysis of both similarities and
differences between countries, providing a valuable picture of
the programmes supporting the development of the Information
Society in the European Union. Furthermore, it identifies a
number of sources, web sites, documents and policies that
collectively enabled the development of this overview of the
evolution of these strategies at the European level.
This report has been prepared bearing the eEurope
initiative in mind and its emphasis on data
collection and benchmarking Information Society developments.
This is especially true as the eEurope initiative recognises the
central role to be played by the Member States of the European
Union in achieving the targets of the Lisbon European Council
and setting further targets, providing adequate funding and
removing obstacles for the development of the Information
Society.
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This report
results from deskwork carried out on the basis of
existing ESIS material and new public documents and
information that have been produced as paper based
publications and/or made available on the Internet.
Although we have tried to be as complete as possible,
some material will inevitably be missing. The Report
Team will be happy to receive additional information for
inclusion in a future updated version (e-mail: esis2@ll-a.fr)
Moreover, it is essential to add that the report's focus has
been on Information Society Strategies and not on all policies,
measures and bodies related to Information and Communication
Technologies.
Updated
version including additional contributions 
