Public Service Day: Join the fight for EPSU's Public Services Agenda

(23 May, 2025) EPSU has launched its Public Services Agenda, calling for strong, accessible, and democratically accountable public services to be placed at the heart of Europe’s future.

Public services are essential to daily life - from healthcare and education to energy, justice and care. But decades of austerity, deregulation and privatisation have left these systems underfunded, understaffed, and unprepared for today’s crises.

This manifesto sets out the political programme of Europe’s public service unions. It calls for a break from failed economic models and a commitment to public investment, fair taxation, and high-quality public employment.

EPSU’s Public Services Agenda calls on European institutions to:

End austerity and suspend the Stability and Growth Pact;
Increase investment in public services and the workers who deliver them;
Stop the privatisation and commercialisation of public services;
Promote tax justice to fund the green and digital transitions;
Protect public service workers’ rights, including collective bargaining and fair pay;
Ensure public services support democracy, inclusion, and well-being for all.

The Public Services Agenda is rooted in the values of solidarity, equality and public good. It offers a roadmap to ensure the EU delivers on the promises of the European Pillar of Social Rights - particularly the right to quality, affordable public services.

As we approach United Nations Public Service Day on 23 June, EPSU encourages all affiliates to use the Public Services Agenda - and the campaign materials that accompany it - to highlight the importance of public services and demand real political action. It is a moment to show that public services are worth defending, funding, and celebrating, and to amplify the calls set out in the agenda across Europe.

EPSU calls on Europe’s policymakers, governments and institutions use the agenda to take concrete action. Because there is no preparedness, no equality, and no just transition without strong public services.