EQUAL CONFERENCE ADDRESSES SOCIAL INCLUSION.

• Position: Brief Article

More than 400 people took part in a conference in Barcelona intended to stress the need to increase efforts to ensure inclusion of vulnerable groups in Europe's labour market. The "NetWORKing for Inclusion" conference, held between May 16-17, looked at how to maximise the impact of EQUAL, a new EU programme to develop new ways of tackling labour market discrimination and inequality.Juan Chozas, employment minister in Spain, and Odile Quintin, Director-General for Employment and Social Affairs, both underlined the importance of EQUAL in fighting social exclusion. "EQUAL is a powerful tool in the battle against unfairness on the job market", said Mr Quintin. "If we can take on board the lessons of its predecessors ADAPT and EMPLOYMENT - and identify and adopt best practice as the norm - EQUAL could have a huge impact on thousands of...