Two years into the pandemic, one neighbouring war impacting the global supply chains and escalating food and energy prices, coupled with the launch of the European Commission ambition for a twin transition (both green and digital) have all added additional pressure on the provision of public services across the EU and its Member States.

In this context CESI’s President Romain Wolff, Secretary General Klaus Heeger and Otto Aigslperger, President of the Expert Commission (Eurofedop) took the occasion of the meeting to agree on the need to address these trends in a systematic way. It was decided to develop internal research steps to understand better how public administration service provision works in different European member states, what shortcomings and bottlenecks there are, and what could be a standardised way on reporting back on public service performance and working conditions. Otto Aiglsperger stated: “We want to have objective key figures on how public administrations function, both in terms of performance but also in terms of working conditions. They will enable us to have arguments in our negotiations at national and European level for adequate resources for public administrations and services.”

The meeting touched on the issue of digitalisation, which brough forward controversial opinion. Although teleworking and remote working were considered advantageous for both workers and employers, a number of limitations and negative externalities were mentioned. For example in Austria the introduction of teleworking solutions in public administration had a positive impact for organisations and workers – especially in terms of increased productivity, more qualitative services, a better work-life balance for the public sector employees – but many are concerned about the social cohesion within organisations with fewer direct interactions between employees.

As follow up to CESI’s DiWork report on digital transitions in public sector service delivery, Dirk Anton van Mulligen, founder of Better Leadership, presented the theory of change management in organisations and emphasised the importance of public servants to become involved in the green and digital transitions: “Digitalisation is a very challenging development and what the pandemic brought forward was a imposed and emergency-led digital change. For it to succeed, trade unions must learn to master change management and to be able to proactively protect workers interest while navigating these transitions towards the future.”

CESI’s Expert Commission ‘Public Administration’ continued with visits to the European Comission Directorates General on Structural Reforms and on Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. The objective of the meetings was to engage with the main stakeholders for public sector reforms and in charge of the European Semester process and showcase CESI’s related trade union demands. The exchange of information during the two visits were very much appreciated by both parties, national stakeholders of CESI and EU representatives. Klaus Heeger, CESI Secretary General, said: “It is very reassuring to see the interest that EU institutions have in meeting the real practitioners, unionists, which are carrying out their work on the ground. It is our role as CESI to facilitate the European institutions’ access to the knowledge, experience and know-how of our national public sector representatives and to ensure that the EU takes into account their position and demands. Now it is the right time to let everyone understand why we need a stronger EU public sector agenda.”

The next meeting of the Expert Commission is scheduled to take place on October 11.