Commission publishes analysis to highlight the quality of public administration as key success factor towards COVID-19 recovery and the green and digital transitions

Today, the Commission has adopted its Staff Working Document “SUPPORTING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONS IN EU MEMBER STATES TO DELIVER REFORMS AND PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE”; it elaborates on the importance of public administrations for meeting EU’s objectives and on the Commission’s experience in helping them boost their performance and capabilities.

Commissioner Ferreira stated “I consider that the reflection on the evolution of public administration in Europe is both timely and innovative. It is timely, as NextGenerationEU provides unprecedented resources to the Member States to undertake unprecedented investments and reforms. We must seize the opportunity to modernise our public administration. The reflection is also innovative, as it focuses in a holistic manner on challenges and opportunities ahead for our Member States, as well as the many ways the Commission can and will continue to support public administration.”

The EU's institutions and Member States are confronted with the momentous COVID-19 health crisis but they also need to address the long-term challenges of making Europe climate-neutral, sustainable and ready for the next digital decade. They have to further improve social justice and fairness and prepare the EU economies for the future while respecting the specific local needs, reducing geographical disparities (including the growing rural divide) and the problem of ageing and declining populations in different parts of Europe. An unprecedented EU budget of EUR 1.8 trillion has been adopted to achieve the EU’s objectives.

Among the many components of this urgent and important policy agenda, the quality and capability of public administrations of the Member States deserve special attention. Public administrations at national, regional and local level deliver crisis response, provide services, implement reforms, manage investments and, more generally, manage public spending to create expected social value. They translate EU law and programmes into concrete actions with long-term effects on economic, social and territorial cohesion, as well as on technological progress. They are responsible for the effective and efficient uptake of the EU Funds. They play a fundamental role in preserving the EU’s shared values.

Quality public institutions are crucial for the EU to address the climate crisis and the economic and societal transitions outlined in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The quality of institutions and the coherent implementation of policies are part of the SDGs themselves, namely SDGs 16 and 17.

The document highlights five major challenges that lie ahead for public administrations and suggests possible improvements. The challenges relate to the unprecedented speed of technological change, the impact of demographic changes and the increasing skills shortage, the increasing complexity of managing policy issues, the impact and importance of the green transition and the increasing competition for limited public funds.

Commissioner Ferreira stated: “The current administrative systems were designed in times of relative stability, when changes were slow. Nowadays, administrations must be more flexible and resilient. Recent crises, including Covid, and future events such as the digital revolution, demonstrate a clear need: public administrations must make organisational, technological and cultural transformations to move with the times.”

The Commission has been actively cooperating with the Member States to have quality public administration, through the identification of critical issues, the support to the design and deployment of reforms, the provision of capacity-building tools and of (peer-based) guidance, the facilitation of exchange of knowledge and experience, financial support and the promotion of research and innovation in the area of public administration. Commission services are fully committed to continue their cooperation with national administrations along these lines; they also want to ensure consistency between the values and principles discussed with the Member States and the neighbour countries, and also to align themselves to the good practices identified.

DG REFORM: Supporting public administrations in EU Member States to deliver reforms and prepare for the future

EU Budget: Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 (in commitments) | European Commission (europa.eu)

Annual Growth Strategy EUR-Lex - 52020DC0575 - EN - EUR-Lex (europa.eu)