Telemofics and Informatics. Vol. 13. No. 213. DD. 177-190. 1996 zyxwvutsr Pergamon Copyright 0 1996 Eiskvier zyxwvutsrqponmlk Science Ltd Printed in Great Britain. All tights reserved 0736-5853/96 $15.00 + 0.00 PII: SO7365853(96)00010-X EUROPEAN PLANNING FOR AN INFORMATION SOCIETY Anders Henten Knud Erik Skouby Morten f alch INTRODUCTION In 1994 and 1995, a large number of national public authorities in Europe issued policy statements and plans regarding the development of electronic communications in their societies. This applies, for instance, to the UK and France and to The Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. At a tram-European level, the European Union (EU) White Paper on growth, competitiveness and employment and the so- called Bangemann report were issued in late 1993 and in the summer of 1994, respec- tively (EC, 1993; HLGIS, 1994). From other parts of the world, the Clinton-Gore initiative on information superhighways (ISHs) and the creation of a national infor- mation infrastructure is very well-known and so are the Japanese, the Singaporean and the South Korean plans. Furthermore, Canada and Australia have made their national plans, and so have some developing countries in Asia (e.g., Malaysia, Thailand and The Philippines). Additionally, the G7 Ministerial Conference on the Global Information Society in Brussels addressed the question in February 1995 and a Global Information Infrastructure Commission has been set up on the basis of a private initiative. It is remarkable that so many countries and international institutions at the same time have prepared plans and programs for the exploitation of the potential of the emerging new information and communication technologies (ICT). One has to go all the way back to the heydays of the railroads to encounter a similar common interna- tional interest and enthusiasm for a technology and its possibilities. This may, of course, be the result of the fact that it has become fashionable to deal with the social implications of information technologies. However, it may also result from the fact that ICT increasingly plays a key role in society. Even if attempting not to underestimate the importance of the “hype factor”, one probably has to recognize that the growing interest in ICT, to a large extent, reflects that something new is actually going on. ICT plays an All authors are at the Center for Tele-Information, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark. Address all correspondence to Anders Henten; E-mail henten@cti.dtu.dk. 177