On the basis of a proposition from Eurodesk, the three European organisations (ERYICA, Eurodesk and EYCA) decided to organise together in Paris in September 2005, a European Seminar that would discuss quality issues relating to information for young people.

When the planning for the seminar began, since there had been no organised attempt to collect information in this area from different countries, the Preparatory Group decided that the starting-point should be a request to all national partners of the three organisations to present examples of initiatives or projects which dealt with an aspect of quality in youth information. This was done on the basis of a "description form" sent to all ERYICA, Eurodesk and EYCA partners in April 2005. There was a very good response from the national partners (over 40 examples received), which confirmed the Preparatory Group in its decision to devote a large part of the seminar programme to the presentation of selected quality initiatives and to an exchange of experience and methods.

In the end, a total of 50 initiatives or projects have been received, 42 of them from the "country" level (most national in scope but not all), and 8 from the European level (being organised by one of the three "organisers" of the seminar, with the involvement of all or part of their membership). The data collected on each of them permits other organisations or persons to take contact with the organisers of an initiative or project that they find interesting.

A brief description of each of these initiatives or projects forms the content of this Compendium, which is to be sent to all of the participants in the European Seminar on "Quality Matters in Information for Young People" (Paris, 15-18 September 2005) in advance of the seminar. The Compendium will also be made available to all their national partners by each of the three European organisations, as part of their work of promoting the sharing of experience and methods.