What is the first thing that crosses people’s minds when they hear the word Sweden? Against all prejudices it is not just elks and midnight sun, but rather the Swedish welfare system. This term refers to a model of provision, where the state assumes responsibility for the universal welfare of all its citizens. The special Swedish system, though embracing a controlled capitalist market economy, has always been geared towards avoiding economic inequality. Sweden’s Social Democratic Party and trade unions played an important role in developing this system, starting to negotiate a model of social egalitarianism in the 1930s. A high level of social security is still maintained today, ensuring high employment rates, especially in the public sector - the "People’s Home" has proved to be a secure haven for all Swedes. As this system guarantees welfare benefits and social services for all, Swedish citizens have so far been willing to accept the highest average tax rates in the world. The challenge lying ahead for the Swedish state is certainly to sustain the comprehensive welfare system even in times of economic recession and high unemployment.

This challenge has already been taken up by Sweden’s neighbour Denmark: in order to reduce the country’s unemployment rate in the mid-1990s, Denmark’s then prime-minister, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, sought to introduce an employment model that would combine both flexibility and security. Although Denmark’s flexible approach to the employment market was nothing new, the term flexicurity, originally credited to the Dutch, came to play an important role in Danish labour politics from then on. Basically flexicurity, a portmanteau word combining flexibility and security, allows employers a relatively high degree of freedom in hiring and firing, while at the same time guaranteeing employees comparably high unemployment benefits. Furthermore, the unemployed are required to participate in reactivation measures in order to be reintegrated in the work force. This combination contributed to the reduction of Denmark’s unemployment rate from 10 % (1995) to 4.5 % at the end of 2006. Due to its success, the flexicurity model has been adopted by several European states and is regarded as a suitable means to tackle future unemployment problems.

In its programme "Window to the future" the Lithuanian government, in cooperation with leading IT companies, banks and telephone operators, is facing up to another important development: the emergence of the Information Society. In 2002, an alliance between parts of the public and the private sector at the grassroots level was launched, in order to create better awareness and encourage a more effective utilisation of information and communication technology resources. The first step of this cooperation was to establish almost 100 public internet centres (PICs), serving as vital points of information especially in rural parts of the country. As the internet access at the PICs is free of charge, the initiative was able to offer internet courses to 20,000 Lithuanians in just seven months. These efforts, and also those in the field of e-Government, have led to a better understanding and higher degree of motivation in the use of the internet and other information technologies, thereby promoting the further development of a future-orientated society and economy.