Capacity building project for the hospital sector in Central, East and Southern Europe started

(12 April 2019) On 28 March 2019 EPSU participated, together with its representatives of two national affiliates from Romania, Sanitas (Federaţia SANITAS din România), and Croatia, HSSMS-MT (Hrvatski strukovni sindikat medicinskih sestara - medicinskih tehničara), in the kick-off meeting of the joint HOSPEEM-EPSU project focusing on strengthening social dialogue in the hospital sector that will run in 2019 and 2020, hosted by HOSPEEM at their offices in Brussels. In the course of the project three Regional Capacity Building Workshops will be organised, on 14 June 2019 in Bucharest, in November 2019 in Rome and in May 2020 in Zagreb. A final dissemination workshop is foreseen for November 2020 in Brussels.

The project mainly aims at strengthening the capacity of national sectoral social partners in hospitals/healthcare in the following 14 EU Member States in Central, East and Southern Europe: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. It firstly provides time and space to exchange on and to collect the topics and priorities relevant for them in view of the EU-level sectoral social dialogue in hospitals/healthcare. Secondly the project seeks to obtain information on the current involvement of the sectoral social partners in the European Semester in their home countries respectively, with the aim to strengthen their role and the extent they are consulted upon by their national government and can make an impact e.g. on the National Reform Programmes and the work to prepare them.

For EPSU this joint activity should help both EPSU and HOSPEEM to better involve the sectoral social partners in hospitals/healthcare in these 14 EU MS in the work of the of the SSDC HS, to make the work there more relevant and easier useable for them and also to support them to be in a better position to use the outcomes of the SSDC HS “back home”. It should also help build up the capacity of the sectoral social partners in hospitals/healthcare in these countries to give input into and to engage more in detail on selected topics that are on the agenda of the SSDC HS. For EPSU affiliates across Europe it is important to have employer organisations as counterparts in their country which is one "success factor" for them for an effective EU-level social dialogue.

Read the article HOSPEEM published on the meeting. Read more in articles on the project prepared by HOSPEEM and EPSU earlier this year.

The project is the third joint activity looking closer into and promoting capacity building after one with activities in 2007 and 2008 focusing on the Czech Republic and Slovakia and a second one with four events in 2010 and 2011 for and with the three Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

This meeting was organised with the financial support of the European Commission.

Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Greece Hungary Italy Malta Poland Portugal Romania Slovak Republic Slovenia Spain