At its first meeting since the last Congress of CESI in December 2016, the Board elected a new leadership of the Europe Academy, CESI’s internal training centre, for the legislative term until 2020. Jean-Claude Halter from CESI’s member organisation CSEN (the French Trade Union Confederation of National Education) was elected to succeed Emilio Fatovic, who had announced his retirement from the post before. Mr Halter will be supported by 7 newly elected Europe Academy Vice-Presidents:

• José Miguel Bachiller f. de los Rios (FASGA, Spain)
• Juan Carlos de Castro Pita (CSI-F, Spain)
• Nicolas Fernandez Guisado (ANPE, Spain)
• Dietmar Knecht (dbb, Germany)
• Marcello Pacifico (CISAL, Italy)
• François Portzer (FGAF, France)
• Luc Viehé (SPELC, France)

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “The Europe Academy is an important body within CESI. It allows our members to build capacity and receive training in European politics and policies, which is central to their work as trade unionists in their home countries and their involvement in social dialogue and interest representation at the European level at CESI. I am glad there will be again a very competent and dedicated leadership during the legislative term until 2020 to built on the previous successful work of the Europe Academy.”

The Board voted to positively on the accession of the KSSH to CESI, the Confederation of Trade Unions of Albania, which is a new full member of the organisation with immediate effect. The Board also voted positively on an application for observer status for the All-Russia State and Public Service Employee’s Trade Union (PRGU). Klaus Heeger said: “I am glad CESI counts another Albanian trade union organisation among its affiliates, and I look forward to collaboration with our new Russian observer. Both organisations are important trade union organisations in their country.”

The Presidium also discussed recent EU political developments such as the European Pillar of Social Rights. It adopted a position paper on the role of trade unions in the collaborative economy. The objective of the paper is to help put into practice the motion ‘Digitalisation: Finding the balance’ that was adopted at CESI’s last Congress. The position paper argues that the collaborative economy offers opportunities as well as threats for workers, which gives rise to challenges for trade unions to exploit the former and mitigate the latter. The full position paper can be accessed in the resources section.