To promote a dialogue between the Government and Parliament on the future's difficult, wide-ranging issues, the Parliament of Finland has a fresh, innovative forum - the Committee for the Future.

The Parliament of Finland has demanded that the Government submit a report on future prospects and problems in different fields. Finland's is the only parliament in the world to have taken such a step. To consider this so-called futures report, it has been necessary to establish the cross-sector Committee for the Future within Parliament. Like other parliamentary committees, the Committee for the Future includes 17 MPs, who are named in accordance with parliamentary power relationships.

The Committee for the Future has existed for two terms of Parliament, and has prepared three reports - each one about hundred pages long. The first report, published in 1994, considered worldwide threats, including the menace to the environment. The second report, from 1997, dealt with globalization, Europe, and Finland's success factors. The most recent report, completed in October 1998, includes 28 concrete political demands directed at the Finnish Government, in addition to an assessment of both the problems of the Nordic welfare system and solutions to those problems. The demands were approved unanimously at a plenary sitting of Parliament on 21 October 1998. Since Finland is holding parliamentary elections in 1999, the futures report will serve as a basis for the drafting of the new Government's programme.

The information society has been one of the topics in every report.

The Committee also follows research and development work in the field. As part of this monitoring it has organized a number of seminars and videoconferences with Singapore, South Korea, China, Japan and Great Britain, among other countries. The Committee has made a comparative study focusing on the job opportunities between Wisconsin U.S. and Finland.

The official consideration of the Committee's report at the plenary sitting of Parliament on 21 October 1998 was broadcast worldwide via the Internet. It marked the first time in parliamentary history that such an audio-visual broadcast had been made. To the chagrin of foreign listeners and viewers, the language used, unfortunately, was Finnish.

On 6-9 January 1999, the Committee will help organize an international conference, "Politics&Internet," in Finland. The event will weigh Information Society issues broadly.

Assessment of the social impacts of technology is also one of the Committee's tasks. The topics to date have been plant-gene technology and lifelong learning.

You can find English translations of the Committee's reports, seminar publications and other information - including an invitation to the "Politics&Internet" conference from our web-site (www.eduskunta.fi).

Chairman of the Committee for the Future:

Member of Parliament Mr. Martti Tiuri, Doctor of Technology.

• tel. +358-9-432 3164,
• fax +358-9-432 2700,
• e-mail: martti.tiuri@eduskunta.fi

Secretary for the Committee for the Future:

Committee counselor Paula Tiihonen, Doctor of Administrative Sciences,

• tel. +358-9-432 2084,
• fax +358-9-432 2140,
• e-mail: paula.tiihonen@eduskunta.fi

In 1996 the Parliament of Finland established a special Committee for the Future (not permanent), which consists of 17 members of the Parliament.

The main task of the Committee for the Future has been to evaluate the reports (white papers) given by the government concering the factors which may have an influence on the forthcoming development of Finland. The Committee was also ordered to organize and coordinate the Technology Assessment of the Parliament. Coordinating to that task the Sub Committee on TA of the Finnish Parliament was established in December 1996.

As Parliamentary Technology Assessment aims at offering parliamentarians high quality, clear and independent information on the consequences of technological development in the society the Sub Committee on TA started its work by discussing different TA-subjects of special importance for the Finnish Parliament. These discussions were enlarged to other Committees to ensure that subjects of most mutual interest would be chosen.

As a result of this process two main subjects were chosen, one concerning plant gene technology in food production and the other information and communication technologies in teaching and learning. The TA on transgenic plants was carried out by the Technical Research Centre of Finland, VTT, and the other one on teaching and learning technologies by the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development, SITRA.

As the technology assessment itself has been carried out by independent research centers the Sub Committee on TA considered it most important to keep the surveillance of the projects. This was provided by establishing steering groups, consisting of members of the Sub Committee on TA, for each project.

The tasks of the steering group have not been to effect or to intervene in the scientifical work but to rise the questions and seek the answers to items of importance for the Parliament Members.