Brussels, 31/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - In Berlin on Tuesday 30 January, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Vladimir Spidla and German Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth Ursula von der Leyen opened the first ever European Equality Summit, and launched the 2007 European Year of Equal Opportunities (see EUROPE 9350). At this event, the European social partners - ETUC (unions), BusinessEurope (employers), UEAPME (crafts and small and medium-sized enterprises) and CEEP (enterprises with public participation and enterprises of general economic interest) - presented a report which: - shows the progress made in implementing their joint strategy in the field of gender equality; - describes how the four priorities identified in the “framework of actions for gender equality”, adopted in March 2005, have been incorporated into the social partners' activities on gender equality in 20 countries; - gives useful information on follow-up actions taken at European, national, cross-industry, sectoral and company levels. For information: http://www.businesseurope.eu ; http://www.ueapme.com ; http://www.ceep.eu ; http://www.etuc.org (gb)