Tribune | 04/09/2006 

Optimists thought that the Internet signalled the advent of the "global village". Pessimists feared that the "web" would isolate citizens into closed, virtual communities. Both have been proved wrong. With hindsight, the Internet and new information technologies have indeed affected political communications in radical ways - and will continue doing so for years to come. But it has not reached such extremes.

In the world of political ideas, the Internet has allowed new practices, such as blogs and other discussion forums. North America, as always in this field, shows the direction Europe will take in the future. However, new forms of communication do not mask drawbacks common to more traditional forms of political discussion: the arguments shared on the Net tend to cluster around similar opinions, and the contradiction of ideas is not very common.

However, as Azi Lev-On and Bernard Manin recently pointed out in French magazine Esprit (May 2006), the internet can, under certain conditions, help overcome the limits of traditional forms of citizen deliberation and encourage the exchange of a diversity of conflicting views. This is precisely the ambition of Notre Europe's new website.

Paradoxically, at a time when the written word may seem out of fashion, the internet encourages the written exchange of arguments and confrontation of ideas. Notre Europe's first contribution will consist in a high-level debate on the democratisation of the EU. Many more will follow. Notre Europe thus hopes to contribute to political debates in general.

Its specific focus, however, is to "think a united Europe"�. It is therefore a privilege to change the URL of our website to .EU, and thereby highlight further Notre Europe's European dimension. With this new website, Notre Europe hopes it will contribute to building a European public sphere, on line and between the men and women who build Europe on a daily basis.