Social partners seek to improve quality of government administrations

TUNED EUPAE

EU social partners in central government discuss concrete ways to improve the quality of public services dealing with people in vulnerable situations

(Public statement -18 November 2014) On 6-7 November 2014 in Bercy, Paris, EU social partners in central government held a conference with the participation of 90 delegates from 15 EU countries and Georgia to follow up on their Framework Agreement for the quality of public services in central government. Representatives of users of publics services also took part.

The Agreement, adopted in 2012 by EUPAE for the employers side and TUNED for the trade unions’ , takes the form of 20 commitments including: respect for the rule of law; efficiency of public services; well-being at work, equity and integrity; communication and transparency in the relationship between employees, employers and users.

It underlines that even at difficult social and economic times, to become real public service values require a social dialogue between trade unions and employers, sufficient resources and consultation of service users.

The conference was based on a one year EU-funded project, entitled "Public service quality for people in vulnerable situations" to examine how public services are delivered against the 20 commitments of the framework agreement, focusing on the three following services:

  • those dealing with asylum claims
  • those dealing with unemployed youth
  • those dealing with low-income pensioners

The project consisted of a qualitative survey of employers, employees and users, a desk research on the population concerned across Europe, and two seminars in Bucharest (June 2014), Rome (in July 2014) .

The final conference was opened by Ms Marylise Lebranchu, French Minister for devolution and civil service who congratulated the social dialogue committee for tackling the important issue of access and quality of public services which, she said, are the wealth of people who don’t have any.

On behalf of the European Commission, Mr Stefano Martinelli, assured of the full support of the Commission President, Mr Juncker, for the social dialogue as an integral part of good governance.

On the basis of the work during both days, concrete recommendations for improving the quality of services will be developed and presented for adoption at the meeting of the social dialogue committee for central government administrations (SDC-CGA) on 25 November 2014. The conclusions will be brought to the attention of the EU Public Administration Ministers on the occasion of their informal meeting on 3 December in Rome.

  • Ministre M. Lebranchu, T. Le Goff, J. Leroy, B. Lejon
  • TUNED EUPAE