  We present results from a project conducted by the Survey Science Center of
the XMM-Newton satellite and aiming at the identification and characterisation
of serendipitous EPIC sources at low galactic latitudes. Deep multi-colour
optical imaging and spectroscopic observations have been obtained in the
framework of several observing campaigns carried out at ING, CFHT and ESO.
These observations have lead to a number of optical identifications, mostly
with active stars. We describe the identified source content at low galactic
latitudes and compare stellar populations properties at low and high galactic
latitudes with those expected from stellar X-ray count models.
