Breakfast event in the European Parliament on challenges in public administrations

Venue: CESI and online via Zoom
Date: April 14 2026
Registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/x45ERVx9T7iy-DoNJmjbUw
Simultaneous interpretation: DE-EN-ES (tbc, depending on registrations)

Breakfast event in the European Parliament on

Abusive fixed term contracts, harmful outsourcing and staffing challenges in public administrations

Room: European Parliament Members Salon

Hosted by MEP Dennis Radke, Member of the European Parliament Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

Interpretation from/to English, German and Spanish (tbc, depending on registrations)

Registration

You are warmly invited to attend an breakfast hearing on 14th of April 2026 at the European Parliament in Brussels, or to join us online, from 8:30 AM onwards.

This event, hosted by MEP Dennis Radtke, Member of the European Parliament Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, will focus on the growing and interconnected pressures facing public administrations across the EU: increasing reliance on non-permanent employment contracts, harmful outsourcing, and critical staffing shortages.

The discussion is meant to fuel discussion on the European Commission’s announcement of a new Quality Jobs Act: Public administrations should lead by example as quality employers. That means ensuring stable employment relationships and avoiding the use of temporary work contracts as a structural staffing tool.

Over-reliance on temporary contracts weakens pay, working conditions and predictability of employment. Precarious employment puts the quality, accessibility and resilience of public services – a key element for the implementation of the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) – at risk.

The breakfast event will bring together representatives of EU institutions, public administrations and social partners to discuss structural solutions to strengthen public sector employment and the EU’s resilience.

Main issues subject to discussion:

• Non-permanent work contracts in the public sector: drivers, impacts and solutions
• Staffing shortages: recruitment and retention, workload, burnout and skills gaps
• Retirement challenges: ageing workforces, succession planning, and safeguarding institutional knowledge
• EU and national policy responses: strengthening social dialogue, workforce planning and fair employment standards
• Harmful outsourcing and fragmentation of public services: accountability, quality and cost

Proposed agenda (speakers to be confirmed):

08:30 – Welcome address
MEP Dennis Radtke, Member of the European Parliament Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

08:45 – Introduction and key remarks
Klaus Heeger, Secretary General of CESI

08:50 – Precarious employment and fixed term contacts in public administrations – impulses

• NN, Eurofound
• Otto Aiglsperger, Eurofedop
• Marcello Pacifico, President of the CESI Europe Academy
• Javier Jordán de Urries Sagarna, Spanish Central Independent and Public Employees’ Trade Union (CSIF)
• Kjartan Björnsson, Head of Unit of the Governance and Public Administration unit, European Commission

09:05 – Protecting quality jobs and decent working conditions through a new Quality Jobs Act

• MEP Li Andersson, Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Employment and Social Affairs
• Niklas Bruun, Professor of Law at the University of Helsinki

09:15 – Exchanges with members of the European Parliament and participants

09:25 – Conclusions

Following the breakfast hearing, discussions will continue at the CESI premises with the meeting of the CESI’s Expert Commission ‘Public Administrations’, held in the framework of CESI’s EU co-funded PillACT project.

Meeting of CESI’s Expert Commission ‘Public Administrations’

11:00 – Opening of the meeting and adoption of the draft agenda
Klaus Heeger, Secretary-General of CESI

11:05 – Election of a new President and two Vice-Presidents of the Expert Commission, following CESI’s Congress in December 2024
Klaus Heeger, Secretary-General of CESI

11:10 – Work priorities of the Expert Commission in 2026
Raluca Radescu, Policy Advisor at CESI

11:20 – Introduction to CESI’s PillACT project on the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights
Raluca Radescu, Policy Advisor at CESI

11:30 – Delivering the Pillar of Social Rights through a new EU Quality Jobs Act: the particular case of employment & working conditions in public administrations

NN, Member of the Cabinet of Roxana Mînzatu, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness

11:50 – The EU’s Preparedness Strategy: Access to essential services as an important element for resilience

Maarten Vergauwen, Team Leader of the Civil Protection Policy Development Directorate-General for European Civil Protection, European Commission (tbc)

MEP NN, Member of the European Parliament Intergroup on Resilience, Disaster Management and Civil Protection

12:00 – Light lunch at CESI

13:00 – Delivering the Pillar of Social Rights through demographic management in public administrations: PillACT project priorities of public administrations personnel

Otto Aiglsperger, Eurofedop
NN, Eurofound

13:20 – Presentation of a position of CESI on ‘Priorities for Europe’s resilience and preparedness for crises and challenges’
Raluca Radescu, Policy Advisor at CESI

13:30 – Discussions and exchanges on how the European Pillar of Social Rights can be better implemented at central, regional and local levels of administrations

Any other business and decision on the date of the next meeting
President of the Expert Commission