In this chapter an overview is given of European national models insofar as their details have been made public, in the context of the objectives for which they have been developed. In general, national models are not well covered in the professional literature, although quite a few papers have been published on the Dutch model and several papers on the Italian model. For this reason, it is necessary to rely on the presentations made at the two recent seminars mentioned above, and on personal contacts with the teams involved in the construction and application of the models. In Section 2, a brief overview is given of those models for which sufficient information is available. This is followed by a discussion of the main principles involved in the design, application and updating of the models. Finally, a summary is given of the current position of national models in Europe and their likely development in the immediate future.
Abstract