RECOMMENDATION

• Considering that archives constitute an essential and irreplaceable element of the cultural heritage;
• Conscious of the fact that a common European policy in the field of archival communication will help to make clear the common heritage on which the different European archives are based on;
• Recognizing the wish of historians to study and civil society to better understand the complexity of the historical process in general and of that of the twentieth century in particular;
• Aware of the fact that it is necessary to make archives more visible in the information society and to cross the borders through the Internet.

The participants of the European Summit on Archives in Berne, May 14th - 16th 1998, commit themselves to:

1. Each National Archives makes a reference on its own Internet homepage to the homepage of the European Archival Network; by clicking on the icon of a country the user will get to the Internet homepage of the chosen country.
2. Each National Archives offers an English translation of basic informations about his institution in a standard form. The Swiss Federal Archives will submit a proposition in this matter.
3. Each National Archives is incited to adopt the standard ISAD(G) for the description of its record groups on the Internet.
4. Each National Archives, whithin its national legislative limits and possibilities, will put on the Internet first the systematic guide, then equally the inventories of the record groups and finally series of documents of its archives.
5. Each National Archives is invited to promote the European Archival Network on the same matter in his own land.
6. It is desirable that in a second phase the European Archival Network will be extended on the whole world.