At the invitation of Germany’s Federal Minister of the Interior, Dr Wolfgang Schäuble, the EU ministers responsible for the public service and public administration and Siim Kallas, European Commission Vice-President for Administrative Affairs, Audit and Anti-Fraud, met in Berlin on 21–22 June 2007 under the German EU Presidency.
The informal meeting focused on the challenge of demographic change for the public service in the European Union’s Member States. Over the next two decades, the number of public service employees aged 50 to 60 will grow by 25% in the EU Member States. In Germany, already more than one-third of federal administration employees is older than 50, and this figure is set to rise to 42% by 2020. It is therefore important to start taking action today in order to deal with the consequences of demographic change.
On this subject, Federal Minister Schäuble stated:
"Demographic change will significantly alter the framework conditions for the public service. Whereas in past decades demographic issues seemed to have very little practical relevance for public administration, their impacts are now beginning to be felt. This is true for Germany and all the EU Member States, though to differing degrees. It is therefore important that we share our experiences and insights on how to prepare the public services for this future task. Today’s ministerial offers an excellent opportunity for such an exchange."
Vice-President Kallas stressed:
"I am convinced that an innovative public administration is a powerful tool in developing policy options to deal with demographic change in society as a whole. The European Commission, responding to the particular challenges of its diverse multinational staff, has already developed and implemented policies to foster equal opportunities and to address the ageing work force. But its experience shows that simply creating new rights on paper is not a panacea. Instead, we must ensure real cultural change throughout the public administration."
The ministers adopted a resolution defining the policy priorities for the European network EUPAN over the next two years. In particular, comparing projects to modernize the public administration and measures to deal with demographic change are on the agenda.
The ministers also agreed to advance the social dialogue between the central public administrations and the European trade unions. The social dialogue promotes an exchange of views between the social partners (employers and employees) as well as consultations with the European Commission. Employers and employees plan to develop their first joint work programme and joint rules of procedure during a two-year test phase.
Informal cooperation between the European Commission and the EU ministers responsible for the public service and public administration primarily serve the goal of experience-sharing. The network helps the national public administrations further improve their quality and efficiency. Whereas the directors-general meet at the political level during every EU Presidency, informal ministerials occur at irregular intervals, usually every two years. The working groups and expert groups meet once or twice during each Presidency.
