European InfoNet Adult Education, the European KBE [Catholic Association for Adult Education] network which provides information about adult education, is to be reorganised from October and will attempt to bridge the gap until it receives further support. As the three-year support expired at the end of September and an application for immediate follow-up support was unsuccessful, the service will now be continued on a basic level for the transitional period. In the next round of applications, a new attempt will be made to finance InfoNet through the Lifelong Learning programme of the EU.

A report from external experts with a points system will be used for the application selection process. This order of precedence will then be used to add projects and networks to the support list, depending on the money available. In the case of InfoNet, the expert report particularly criticised the structure of the network itself, but not the purpose or quality of the work. According to the network coordinator Dr Michael Sommer, on the one hand, this selection process is independent, but on the other, it makes continual and strategic support more difficult. In his view, the fate of an application particularly depends on the preferences of the individual expert and the impression the application makes on him or her. However, Dr Sommer sees the main problem in there being no European structure for adult education into which an information system such as InfoNet would fit. He feels that the attempts of a European working group to create a European action plan have not been very successful. There are European institutes for vocational training (CEDEFOP) and school education (Eurydice) that offer an information system and are directly financed by the Commission.