INTRODUCTION

There are four main actors of public policy making in the European Union, the territorial states, the regions, the institutes of the European Union, and the autonomous networks. In the past decade the role of autonomous networks has been increasing in the European Union. As a result, the European Union has become a "network society" using the term of Manuel Castells. According to Castells, "networks constitute the new social morphology of our societies, and the diffusion of networking logic substantially modifies the operation and outcomes in processes of production, experience, power, and culture" [Castells 1996].