Brussels, 27 June 2024
Good morning, and welcome to all to this first ComPAct high-level conference.
I am delighted, because I care a lot about this project, to see so many of you present here, both in-person and following online.
A particular welcome to the social partners, businesses, and trade unions who are joining us today in big numbers. We will all benefit from your different points of view and experiences.
Public administrations play a crucial role in Europe.
The public sector represents more than half of the EU GDP. It is key to providing public services, such as education, healthcare, and essential infrastructure. Many more vital sectors in our lives and economy depend on the public sector.
The public sector also plays a key role in defining our collective future, both at the European and at the different Member States level.
Imagine a Europe where you have access to high quality public services, wherever you live. Not just schools and hospitals, but also intelligent transport networks, and easy links between businesses, and research and innovation networks.
Imagine a Europe where key public services are just two clicks away, as public administrations start using, and we start getting used to using, advanced digital technology, offering easy access to all essential services.
Imagine a Europe where all public administrations are greener. Using green budgeting, and green procurement, not just to reduce their own ecological footprint, but also to promote energy saving, recycling, and renewable energy, for businesses, and for communities.
Imagine a Europe, where every region has the job opportunities, the housing, and the public services to ensure that young families have the “freedom to stay”, as Enrico Letta so correctly pointed out, and do not feel forced to leave in search of a decent life.
Well, this is a kind of dream, but so many things in Europe started as new topics like peace, progress, respect for each other. And democracy. So, I think it is worth having a vision, call it a dream or not.
Public services play a key role in all these situations – and more!
In fact, public services will play a key role in all our future priorities. From energy security to the security of our borders. From the zero-carbon economy to competitiveness in the global economy.
Of course, there is a long road to go. And we are not there yet. But what we are doing, here today, is an important milestone along the way.
Over the past years, our work to support public administrations and enhance a European administrative space got off to a flying start.
In October last year we tabled the first ever action plan (ComPAct) not only to support public administrations in the Member States, but also to strengthen cooperation between them.
And jointly, we have already started implementation for 21 of the 25 actions it covers.
For example, through the so-called “ERASMUS for civil servants” – more officially, the Public Administration Cooperation and Exchange programme – we have already supported 500 civil servants from 21 Member States, to visit and work for a short term in other countries, to exchange practices and to learn from each other.
This disseminates know-how, it creates a common culture, mutual understanding, a network, and disseminates experience across Europe, adding value in a world of limited resources.
Another example: through the centres of excellence, the EU leadership programme and the EU academy, we are providing training for civil servants to learn new skills, including digital skills.
Much of this learning is modular and self-paced because we know that everybody is very busy!
And as you know, we are supplying various support centres, to help civil servants across a wide range of issues. For example: conducting climate risk assessments, running a green procurement process, or making the best use of Artificial Intelligence and cloud services.
We talk about these issues, but to move from talking and wanting to do it to how to do it, that is the trick, so we really need to have these lines of support so that we materialise what we want to achieve.
We are also supporting a particular innovation: the “regulatory sandboxes”. Administrations bring potential changes, through either new legislation, or changes to their business processes.
The sandbox allows a “dry run” of the proposal to identify gaps and opportunities, as well as creating a map of the steps each partner will need to follow, and that others, further afield, can replicate.
In all these initiatives, we are also taking particular account of local administrations. And I call your attention to this: sometimes we support actions thinking of the centralised services, but fortunately territory and people are all over the place, so we need to look at the regional level administrations as well.
We recognise that you, at the regional and local levels, have specific needs, and challenges. And we aim to tailor every initiative to your specific needs so that it works for everybody.
With so many exciting initiatives ongoing, and more in the pipeline, it is clear that we need the broadest possible range of expertise.
The social partners, both the businesses and the trade unions, bring a particular perspective. Your knowledge and your capacities can make all these initiatives a reality and much more effective.
But crucially, they also make these initiatives more participative, with greater local input, a broader range of views and stronger ownership across society.
And there can be no better way to set the stage for the next Commission. This one is about to finish, so you are the ones who can carry on and continue what we have started to implement.
In the coming years, Europe will face many challenges, so we must fight for what we believe in, in order not to be lost with so many challenged and requests.
And citizens, quite rightly, have high expectations on public administrations across Europe.
Europeans expect that we will be excellent in managing Europe’s public affairs. They are right to expect that.
They also expect that we will manage future EU enlargements to the benefit of all of us, ensuring that new countries will grow, develop, and acquire the best skills.
And Europeans expect that we all manage the triple transition – green, digital, and demographic – for our collective success, including at the local and regional levels. So that every place, and every community has a future.
A future that includes quality jobs, a clean environment, and high-quality public services for every city and region across Europe.
The stakes have never been higher. And the stakes include public trust.
The Europe that works for people includes strong public services. Our citizens rely on us. They must trust us.
We must demonstrate to Europeans that we can adapt to the challenges of the future. That we are worthy of their trust. And that the European model, which has served us so well these last 70 years, will remain effective in the years to come.
These are the stakes. This is our work.
I look forward to our discussion.
Source – EU Commission