Celebrating World Public Service Day 2025

On June 23rd, we join the world in marking United Nations Public Service Day, a vital opportunity to honour the dedication of public sector employees. These professionals are the backbone of resilient societies, ensuring fair, timely, and high-quality access to essential services for all citizens.

Yet, their life-saving and transformative work often goes unrecognized, underfunded, and undervalued. This day reminds us that the strength of our communities—and indeed of Europe’s competitiveness—depends on sustained investment in public services and the people who deliver them.

Investing in People: The Foundation of Sustainable Growth

In today’s rapidly shifting global economic landscape, with rising living costs, growing socio-economic inequalities, digital divides, and heightened geopolitical tensions, robust public services are more essential than ever. The European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CESI) stresses that competitiveness must be built on human capital and resilient social infrastructure—not at the expense of fair wages or labour protections.

CESI calls for:

• Progressive taxation and closure of tax loopholes to fairly finance essential public services;
• Increased public investment in both infrastructure and human resources—particularly in education, vocational training, preventive healthcare, and public employment services;
• Improved working conditions and fair remuneration for public sector employees;
• Modernisation of public administrations, embracing AI and digitalisation to enhance efficiency, while safeguarding personalised, accessible services and ensuring technology serves as a tool for inclusion, not exclusion.

Social Dialogue: A Cornerstone of Competitiveness

Strong social partnerships are not a cost, but an economic asset. Countries with robust social dialogue recover faster from crises, achieve more sustainable growth, and ensure fairer transitions in times of change. CESI advocates for the full integration of trade unions and social partners into EU economic governance and decision-making, so that workforce voices help shape competitiveness and social policies alike.

CESI also supports reforms to public procurement rules that prioritise EU-made goods and services, encourage fair work through binding social criteria, and simplify procedures for public administrations.

A Call to Action

“Real investment in public sector employees is crucial to ensuring the sustainability and resilience of our societies,” said Klaus Heeger, CESI Secretary-General. “The EU must not wait for another crisis to realise that public services are the backbone of our communities. Public services, combined with strong social dialogue, are indispensable to achieving Europe’s economic and social ambitions.”

On this Public Service Day, CESI urges policymakers to embrace public services not as a burden, but as indispensable infrastructure—central to the EU’s competitiveness, economic security, and the well-being of its citizens.

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