The campaigns promoted in 2007 as part of the European Equal Opportunities Year have been very many, "ranging explains MEP Vladimir pidla from creative ads on MTV channel to corporate diversity awards". "Now, we have to build on the positive results" of the Special Year, "so that its activities may have a lasting effect". The European Equal Opportunities Year aimed at raising the citizens’ awareness of their right to receive equal treatment within the EU, as well as at "promoting a broad debate on the benefits of diversity" and social inclusion. Among the activities carried out on a local and national scale as part of the Special Year, "the most outstanding are 47 different anti-discrimination training schemes, 31 studies or surveys, and 21 contests for schools, companies or the public at large". Nationwide advertising campaigns were conducted in Austria and in Belgium, while "important youth festivals were used" in France and Cyprus "to spread the message of diversity". In Slovenia, a group of people who had been discriminated against, the so-called "faces of the year", "visited the schools to tell about their experiences".
