Disability mainstreaming in the European Employment Strategy

I. Introduction
As a follow up of the European Year of People with disabilities and as announced in the Communication "Equal opportunities for people with disabilities: A European action plan"1, the European Commission proposed to draft a working paper about disability mainstreaming in the European Employment Strategy (EES). The EES has since its start in 1997 paid particular attention to disadvantaged people who run a high risk of exclusion from the labour market. People with disabilities are one of the groups who are disadvantaged in most Member States as regards participation in the labour market.