Congress

EPSU’s Congress takes place every five years, where national affiliates gather together to hear updates on our latest work, vote on positions and priorities for the coming term and elect the Executive Committee. The last EPSU Congress was held from 20 to 23 May 2014 in Toulouse, France, where a series of resolutions were adopted on public services, economic governance, collective bargaining, gender equality and other issues.

Fighting for a Future for All - EPSU Congress, Dublin, 4-6 June 2019

Preparations for the next Congress are underway and the Executive Committee agreed in November 2017 to draft a Programme of Action (PoA) rather than a series of separate resolutions. It also agreed that the PoA would have three main sections:

  • Future of Public Services
  • Future of Work in Public Services
  • Future of Public Service Trade Unions.

This approach was also endorsed by the Congress Resolutions Committee (CRC) which met on 1 February. The CRC is made up of representatives from each EPSU constituency. The CRC also discussed an initial outline of the Programme of Action and an amended version was then distributed for discussion at EPSU’s committees and working groups – the Gender and Women’s Equality Committee (8 February), the Local and Regional Government Committee (12 March), the Social Services Working Group (13 March), the Health and Social Services Committee (14 March), the Utilities Committee (22 March) and the National and European Administration Committee (27 March). The aim of these initial discussions has been to identify the main issues that should be included in the PoA rather than to have detailed written amendments. Suggestions from affiliates were integrated, as far as possible, in the first formal version of the Programme of Action translated into EPSU’s official languages (French, German, Russian, Spanish and Swedish) and discussed at the EPSU Executive Committee on 8-9 May. Following the Executive Committee a revised PoA will be sent out to all affiliates by 15 June. They will then have until 10 September to propose amendments.

EPSU is encouraging affiliates to focus on the PoA and to put forward amendments where appropriate. If however, affiliates feel that they want to address an issue in a separate resolution then they will have the time between 15 June and 10 October to do so.

For information on previous Congresses

Congresses archives : 20142009, 2004, 2000.

For the 2014 Congress in Toulouse see also epsucongress2014.eu