Public Futures Studies in the New Members of the EU

This article is the seventh in the series started by Futuribles in June 2004, in partnership with the Aleph group of the French Commissariat général du Plan. The aim of the series is to enlighten readers about what specialist bodies are doing in other countries in the area of futures studies and strategic thinking geared to public decision-making. The earlier articles looked at what is happening respectively in Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Quebec, South Africa and Japan. This seventh article focuses on the countries that joined the European Union in May 2004 (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Cyprus and Malta).
Mounir Corm and Aurélien Colson argue here that, although the ten new member states are extremely diverse and have very different histories, they have considerable expertise with regard to foresight, planning and/or strategic thinking. They describe the main agencies, country by country.