Under the motto “Celebrating 2007!” over 700 participants from all 30 countries involved with the European Year gathered in Lisbon on 19 and 20 November to close the Year with an official conference. The event took place in the beautiful Centro Cultural Belém and was hosted by the Portuguese EU Presidency.
The Closing Conference celebrated the effective implementation of the Year and looked back on the numerous diverse and enriching activities that took place in across Europe. It also provided a perfect opportunity to identify which of these activity programmes will be continued and therefore become the legacy of the Year in the future. The Conference was attended by national anti-discrimination and equality authorities, national social partners, national NGOs and also by a delegation of NGOs and social partners that operate EU-wide. Moreover, representatives of EU institutions (Commission, Parliament, Committee of the Regions and Economic and Social Committee) joined the festivities.
The event was launched on 19 November by his Excellency Prime Minister José Socrates, Pedro Silva Pereira, Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, José Vieira da Silva, Minister of Labour and Social Solidarity , Nikolaus van der Pas, Director-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, and Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, Vice President of the European Parliament. The day continued with panel discussions on diversity and equal opportunities and on the Year’s legacy. These discussions were followed by four different workshops under the headings of “Access to rights”, “Equal opportunities & gender mainstreaming”, “Social inclusion and multiple discrimination”, and “Diversity, migration and intercultural dialogue”.
Day two kicked off with another panel discussion entitled "Paving the way towards equality for all”. The discussion featured voices from civil society and the ministerial round-table “From the Year’s Legacy to a new governance towards Equal Opportunities and Non-discrimination”. To wrap up the Closing Conference, the winners of the honorary awards were announced following a competition organised for the Year's National Implementing Bodies during the conference. The aim of the competition was to present the most informative, interesting and awareness-raising initiatives created by the National Implementing Bodies of the participating countries over the course of the year. The prize for the best audiovisual entry went to Poland, the prize in the category of information material went to Portugal, the prize in the category for visual initiatives went to Belgium and the Czech Republic won in the special category.
Source: European Commission website.
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