EU information policy as a factor of sustainable development

Abstract

EU information policy emerged only in the mid-1980s as a set of mutually related strands and policy decisions. Two levels of information policy are essentially developed. One is related to the information society and its infrastructure, and the other to access to information. Apart from the focus of the information industry, ranging from telecommunications, the Internet and e-services, the problem of information policy and the global information society is related to macro, micro and meso-economic levels. Here is the link with the sustainable development strategy. Sustainable development is seen not only in the narrow sense of the word as an element of environmental and regional policies, but also in the possible broader view – as a principle of responsible governance for achieving social cohesion, as one of the possibilities for the EU to consolidate internally with aid from the information policy, despite strong centrifugal trends in European integration. At a time when the EU is moving into a new phase of political integration, there is a need for an open debate on the finality, structure and political scope of reunification. From what trends will prevail – decentralization or vice versa – the consolidation depends on the future of the world and its development.