Tand the world seem to have entered a sustained period of instability and insecurity. A state of ‘permacrisis’ has become a new normal for European citizens, with one crisis seamlessly followed by the next or with crises even overlapping each other and accumulating.

More than two years after the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, the impacts on public health systems will be felt for years to come, even if vaccination may help to partially keep the disease under control. Similarly, the socio-economic damages caused by the responses to the pandemic have created long-term challenges for governments and citizens for the coming years or even decades.

At the same time, effects of climate change become increasingly tangible: Previously exceptional torrential rains, flooding, extreme heatwaves, and wildfires, are becoming more and more common and are undisputedly connected to an advancing climate change. The EU and its Member States are struggling both to treat the roots of climate change – in other words, to become greenhouse gas-neutral – and to be better prepared to face its punctually unpredictable symptoms – natural disasters in particular – and limit damages to people’s lives and well-being, property, the economy and not least nature itself.

While the EU and its Member States have been setting a green agenda and moving towards post-Covid recovery, inflation kicked in. Prices started rising across many commodities and have outpaced wage increases in many Member States. As a result, citizens and workers, especially the low and middle-income households, increasingly face threats to their wealth and social standards, which exposes them to poverty risks. So far, policymakers and central bankers in the EU and the Member States have not succeeded in developing a fiscal and monetary balance between keeping inflation at bay, investing heavily in climate neutrality, and not endangering the post-Covid economic recovery.

The fallout of the war in Ukraine adds to this triple crisis. Peace and security can no longer be taken for granted. New investment may be required in the EU’s own military deterrence. The heavy dependence of many Member States and industries on Russian oil, gas and raw materials means additional economic and financial uncertainties and threats to companies as well as to workers, citizens and households. As the war drags on, millions of Ukrainian refugees arriving in the EU need to be sheltered and integrated with the Member States’ education and health systems, societies, and labour markets.

The Covid pandemic, climate change, inflation and the war in Ukraine –crises management requires, resilient, performing and well-functioning public services and administrations. Public services and administrations which are well-equipped and resourced to care, protect and deliver in times of sustained uncertainty. They protect the most vulnerable, reduce social inequalities, ensure citizens’ prosperity and well-being, and allow business to function. In sum, public services are a key to the realisation and implementation of the EU’s social objectives as summed up in the European Pillar of Social Rights.

Whether public services can deliver their tasks, crucially depends on the workforce, on those that carry out and provide services. Where their employment and working conditions are not adequate, where facilities and their work equipment are not up to speed, and where there is no sufficient staff at all, quality services cannot be delivered.

Unfortunately, though, in many public services and administrations favourable framework conditions are still lacking: understaffing, work overload, lack of adequate infrastructure and equipment, exposure to health and safety risks and insufficient training are widespread in the working life of public sector employees, especially for those who are in the frontline of emergency management.

The described crises are not limited to local, regional or national levels and do not stop at borders. They are European challenges that the Member States and citizens across the EU share. As such, the EU-level policy making and social dialogue need to be involved in the formulation of responses, in conjunction with local, regional and national actors.

As a European confederation of more than 40 national and European trade union organisations with a total of more than 5 million individual members (most of which are employed in the different fields and levels of local, regional, national and European public services and administrations), this project of CESI aims to sketch comparative solutions of how performing public services and their personnel can help the EU and its Member States to face the multiple and new emerging crises in the future.

In the context of the above background and rationale, the project foresees:

• European online round tables (8) for CESI members to give them the opportunity to systematically take stock of the challenges that they face. Given that different sectors (health, education, administrations, …) may experience different problems, the round tables are intended to be held on a sector-specific basis.
• European hybrid national seminars (6) with CESI members in the different EU Member States to identify, discuss and compare national cross-sector experiences of public services on the ground.
• National hybrid seminars (7) for the representatives and multipliers of CESI member trade unions (divided by sector) to identify EU initiatives to help mitigate the various crises and raise awareness about them in their employment structures, unions, sectors and the Member States.
• A European hybrid conference to discuss and bring together the conclusions of the online round tables and hybrid seminars and to develop written guidelines on how public services and their personnel can best be rendered resilient and help the EU and the Member States face the various current and future crises and on how trade and social partners can constructively contribute to and be involved in the process
• A digital communication campaign to accompany the project in public and to raise awareness about the needs and demands of public service personnel and its representatives