The meeting started off with the election of the new president and two vice-presidents of the Trade Council. Dr Wilhelm Gloss (Eurofedop) continues in the role as President, Mr Massimo Battaglia (CONFSAL-UNSA, Italy) as well in the role as vice-President, however Mr Francisco Javier Camarillo (CSI-F, Spain) takes up the seat as vice-President for the first time. CESI now has a rejuvenated board of its ACF Trade Council ready to tackle issues of social rights and protection of public services in the field of central administration and finances.

The discussions of the day began with an overview of social dialogue on the national level and the European developments within the sectoral social dialogues committees where CESI is participating. Later on the Trade Council was joined by the Italian vice minister of Justice Mr Gennaro Migliore who spoke in detail of the last financial crisis and the impacts of austerity on public services and administrations. He also highlighted the need to understand the extent of the crisis which is not merely financial, but structural and social. The discussions continued in the same spirit throughout the day when speaking of topics such as austerity policies and the importance of functioning public services, the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion, and in-work poverty.

Florian Hauser from the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (EMPL), in charge of coordinating the EU Toolbox for Quality of Public Administration, joined the Trade Council to introduce said Toolbox and related funding made through the European Social Fund. He noted the importance of investing in public administration but also stressed that the issue on EU level was one of subsidiarity and not having authority to create policy in that matter.

The Trade Council meeting also saw the presentation of a new position paper on the protection of whistleblowers following a public consultation on the same topic, which will be made available in the resources section.