It concerned “transnational co-operation to promote new means of combating all forms of discrimination and inequalities in connection with the labour market”.
These involved the 117 ESF Managing Authorities (mostly national ministries and regions) and their key external partners, but had a much more limited budget and reach than EQUAL did.
EQUAL co-financed activities in all 27 EU Member States - the 12 new countries actually joined in January 2004, 4 months before their official accession.
EQUAL differed from the European Social Fund mainstream programmes in its function as a laboratory (principle of innovation) and in its emphasis on active co-operation between Member States.
Entrepreneurship c) Opening up the business creation process to all by providing the tools required for setting up in business and for the identification and exploitation of new possibilities for creating employment in urban and rural areas d) Strengthening the social economy (the third sector), in particular the services of interest to the community, with a focus on improving the quality of jobs 3.
Transnational co-operation was carried out only on an ad hoc basis organised multilaterally among Member States, and was in consequence much diminished.
This comprised: The common themes were: Mutual learning: The thematic networks met three times in each year, in Brussels or by invitation in other capital cities.
They each involved on average 10 Member States (representatives of ESF Managing Authorities and ministries responsible for the policy area concerned) and 5 other stakeholders such as NGOs and social partners.