Local and regional governments as employers

How municipalities are reforming their public services to respond to the challenges facing them? And to what extent dialogue between employers and employees can play a role in that process? These were the main questions raised at the conference organised by the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR) together with the European federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU), on 3 June 2008, in Brussels.

The conference aimed to present and discuss the outcome of the CEMR/EPSU research project on changes in the organisation of local public services and the role social dialogue.

 

The event was opened by Nikolaus Van der Pas, Director General of DG Employment, who stressed the key role of social partners in the process of restructuring and modernisation. He also referred to the achievements and recent developments in the European social dialogue process. The importance of this dialogue was also highlighted by the other participants in the conference.

 

Social dialogue can be a useful instrument to prepare, organise and manage the change. This was the objective that CEMR and EPSU took as a starting point for the project, said CEMR's director of policy, Angelika Poth-Mögele. At the end of the event, the main conclusion that emerged from the discussions was that no reform process can be sucessful without the cooperation and dialogue between social partners.

The CEMR/EPSU research project sets out the main drivers for change in services delivery in the local and regional government sector. These include financial pressures resulting from low economic growth since the 1970s; EU policies on internal market (liberalisation), procurement and state aids; increasing pressure on municipalities to deliver more and better services; as well as demographic changes and ageing populations.

 

With an ageing population and the challenge of climate change, local public services will be more, not less important, said EPSU Secretary General, Carola Fischbach-Pyttel. The objectives for local public services are linked to the values and principles of solidarity, universality, just and fair pricing... These should be the real drivers of change.

 

The report also features a set of 10 case studies to illustrate how municipalities and regions have modified their public services to adapt themselves to new trends and developments in services delivery. They represent a reasonable range of services and different approaches to the reform process. They all show that social dialogue can play an important role in the modernisation of public services.

 

The project study will be available in English, French and German.