Six EU-funded education projects aimed at promoting social inclusion were named today as winners of the 2010 European Awards for Lifelong Learning. The winning projects are from Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom and involve partners from many other European countries. The awards were announced at a conference in Barcelona.

The projects, each involving partners in several European countries, were "excellent examples of what can be achieved by working together across borders to promote learning for all, regardless of age or social group", said Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou.

The awards were for projects in school education (funded by the EU 'Comenius programme'), higher education ('Erasmus' programme), adult education ('Grundtvig' programme) and vocational training ('Leonardo da Vinci'), as well as for 'Languages' and 'Information and Communication Technologies'.

The European Awards for Lifelong Learning were announced at a conference in Barcelona on the future of the EU's main programme for education and training after 2013. The conference focused on how best to develop the EU's support for cross-border exchanges of students and teachers, as well as transnational partnerships between education and training institutions, and simplification of the way the EU's Lifelong Learning programme is managed.