Summing inclusion maps between symmetric sequence spaces

We prove a substantial extension of a well-known result due to Bennett and Carl: The inclusion of a 2-concave symmetric Banach sequence space E into l_2 is (E,1)-summing, i.e. for every unconditionally summable sequence (x_n) in E the scalar sequence (||x_n||_2) is contained in E. Various applications are given, e.g. to the theory of eigenvalue distribution of compact operators and approximation theory.