Potential policies and strategies for building the information society (IS) in countries that are candidates for admission to the European Union were explored at a workshop attended by 39 experts from the European Commission (EC), the EC's Institute for Prospective and Technological Studies, and outside the EC. The workshop focused on the specific context for IS developments in candidate countries, paying special attention to the following topics: infrastructures; info-structures; capabilities and skills; and assessment of the present IS in candidate countries. The workshop also examined transferable lessons from selected information and computer technology (ICT)- related experiences in the European Union's 15 member states. After concluding that a simple scenario for the road forward does not exist, the workshop participants presented a series of provisional conclusions regarding how to put IS policy strategies at the service of countries' democratic development while optimizing their resources and economic output. (Sixty-eight endnotes, a 14-item bibliography, and a list of experts from the panel workshop are included. The following items are appended: lists of policy and research implications by the experts in the workshop's concluding session; a list of structural indicators for evaluating countries' needs; an action plan for creating an IS for all of Europe; definitions of ICT activity; and a list of ICT goods in the Standard International Trade Classification.) (MN)