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Dear Colleagues,

As the Belgian presidency comes to an end, we can now look back at the past six months with much gratitude and satisfaction with the work that was done.

First, we want to sincerely thank all European Ministers, Directors-General, colleagues and guest speakers who played an active part in our various events and projects. We also want to thank the European Commission for the contributions and support during the Belgian presidency. Fostering fruitful dialogue within the network was one of our main objectives, and it’s thanks to everyone’s involvement that we’ve achieved it.

Throughout our presidency, we have focused on the human resources challenges that the Public Administration is facing today and will face in the near future in the context of a fundamental transformation of society and the civil service. We have addressed this central topic during the various EUPAN meetings and have established the link with the other networks DISPA and EPSO by means of presentations and workshops that have delve into the following specific themes:

  • Future perspectives
  • Evidence informed policy-making
  • Wellbeing for public agents
  • Ethics and Integrity
  • Equity, Inclusion and Diversity
  • Attractiveness of the civil service
  • Sustainable government
  • AI and technology
  • Transnational European collaboration and dissemination of public sector expertise

The Ghent Declaration signed by all parties during the Ministerial Meeting at the end of February tackles those challenges and reaffirms the significance of European collaboration in dealing with them. The Directors General in charge of public administrations were invited to take into account the conclusions of the Ghent Declaration through dialogue and exchanges of good practices and within the framework of EUPAN and its strategy paper. This will form an inspiration for future work.

Furthermore, during our presidency, we carried out a pilot project to define the contours of a future European HR benchmark. The project started with a survey report on HR indicators in each Member State. After holding workshops and discussions at various levels within the network, the project also produced a draft approach for the future. We hope to have laid the foundations for a joint initiative in this area, which can be developed by future Presidencies of the EUPAN network.

And, finally, under the Belgian presidency 2024, the EUPAN network also granted observer status to two new members: Moldova and Ukraine.

On the EUPAN Website, you will discover the full review of actions and conclusions of our presidency and the Ghent Declaration.

It is now time to hand over to our Hungarian colleagues and we wish them all the best with the promising programme for their presidency.

Yours sincerely,

Ben Smeets
Director General Recruitment and Development
Federal Public Service Policy and Support