Information for Citizenship in Europe

Edited by Jane Steele

Only by being well informed is it possible for citizens to exercise their rights, fulfil their responsibilities and play their full part in the democratic process. Individual European countries have developed different approaches to citizenship information. These include different rights to information, priorities and resources for providing information, and constitutional, policy and service frameworks.

This study, commissioned from PSI by the European Commission, assesses and compares the situation in five EU countries - the UK, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands and Ireland - and in Norway, and also considers the accessibility of information about the EU itself. The authors examine how each of the case study countries keep their citizens informed and what rights to information those citizens have. They analyse the reasons for different policy developments and the effectiveness of those policies; they assess the future trends in demand for information by citizens and whether services will be available to meet those demands; and they look at the current and potential role of information technology in providing citizenship information.

The Contributors:

• Dr Maria Joaqina Barrulas, INETI/CITI, Lisbon
• Professor Ana Maria Correia, INETI/CITI, Lisbon
• Dr Zita Correia, INETI/CITI, Lisbon
• Anouk Kramp, NBBI, The Hague
• Professor Helmut Kromar, Hohenheim University, Stuttgart
• Dr John Mackenzie Owen, NBBI, The Hague
• Dr Paschal Preston, COMTEC, Dublin City University, Dublin
• Michael Rooney, PSI, London
• Dr Gerhard Schwabe, Hohenheim University, Stuttgart
• Jane Steele, PSI, London

£16.95 paperback ISBN 0 85374 686 9
1996 368 pages 216 x 135mm
Report number 812