Public Services Social Partners welcomed today Commissioner László Andor at the
Conference “Anticipation of Change in Public Services”.

The conference was organised to discuss the achievements of a project which showed the potential of social dialogue at cross‐sectoral level and at sectoral level to contribute better to overcome the crisis. The project “Anticipation of change” was managed by CEEP with the support of ETUC and several sectoral social partners in the electricity, transport, postal services, healthcare, education and administration sectors.

The Commission highlighted that Services of General Interest (SGIs) employ 30% of EU Workers1 “Their actions impact on both quality of life and the opportunity and effectiveness of Europe’s economy” he said. Therefore their role is essential to achieving the targets of the European 2020 strategy; Commissioner Andor committed to take the role of Services of General Interest fully into account especially when it comes to “inclusive growth”.

Public Services Social Partners responded to this commitment showing all the potential that increased synergies between cross‐sectoral and sectoral social dialogues at European level can bring to find new solutions to the changes SGIs are facing.

This reinforced the connection of CEEP about the need of setting up a Public Services Employers Forum, and the President of CEEP, Carl Cederschiöld, concluded the conference by inviting public services employers’ federations to join the process.
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The project was supported by: CEEP, ETUC, CEMR, CER, EFEE, EPSU, ETF, ETUCE,
EURELECTRIC, Eurocadres, HOSPEEM, PostEurop, UITP, Uni‐Europa