Brussels, 25/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - ECAS, the European Citizen Action Service chaired by former European Commissioner Mario Monti and headed by Tony Venables, published a report on 21 September entitled “Does the EU have the will to tackle its information deficit?”. The report was highly critical of the European Commission's White Paper on this subject. “Information should be put back in the title of the White Paper”, as the information deficit in the EU has accumulated over the years and can no longer be ignored, ECAS states. It goes on to assert that “the White Paper should be rethought” as it is “partly missing its target” (see EUROPE 9267 regarding the communication on follow-up to the White Paper announced by the European Commission for the second half of October). The White Paper focuses too much on what it calls the “communication gap”, ECAS states, also reproaching the Commission document for being excessively pessimistic about the awareness of European identity as “a European identity is emerging and its fuller expression is frustrated by the lack of adequate factual information”. (Information: Caroline Gonthier. Tel: 02 548 98 23. Email: c.gonthier@ecas.org).