On 8-9 April, 2019, Vrancea County Council hosted at its premises in Focșani the working-level meeting of the European Public Administration Network (EUPAN) expert group, an event jointly organised by the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration (MDRAP) and Vrancea County Council.
Under the rotating Council Presidency held by Romania, the activities of EUPAN are managed by MDRAP, through the General Directorate for Public Administration, the National Agency of Civil Servants (ANFP) and the National Institute of Administration (INA). In that context, the gathering of Focșani brought together around 60 public administration practitioners from the EU as well as representatives of the organisers.
The participants were introduced to the new EUPAN Strategy Paper and dwelt on topics of interest such as:
the competences required for delivering e-government
ethics, an integral part of the organisational culture
challenges in the usage of e-services in public administration
the impact of strategic documents on the performance of the central government administration
Romania’s representatives presented best practices related to ethics and integrity, while Finland, the country taking over the rotating Council Presidency starting July 2019, presented its own priorities as future EUPAN Presidency.
In his capacity as coordinator of the events organised by MDRAP under the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Secretary of State Virgil-Alin Chirilă emphasised that Romania was a firm supporter of strengthening the European project in order to meet the expectations of European citizens in a cohesive, consistent and fair manner.
“The Romanian Council Presidency has been successful, as proven both by the very large number of completed files and by the recognition we have received from the officials of EU institutions as well as from the representatives of all the Member States who participated in the events hosted in our country by the ministry I represent and by other bodies engaged in this ample project. In the context of the challenges that the European Union is currently being faced with, the Romanian Council Presidency aims at further contributing to the Union’s convergence and cohesion in order to ensure a sustainable and fair development for all the citizens and across all the Member States. Romania believes in solidarity and in a truly strong and united Europe; thus, all the institutional efforts engaged under the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU have been focusing on this common goal”, Secretary of State Alin Chirilă stated.
EUPAN meetings take place under every Council Presidency, both at expert and management levels. The main mission/responsibility of the participants is to implement the objectives and the activities set out in EUPAN Strategy and the related Action Plan. The next EUPAN meeting will be held in Bucharest, on June 3-4, 2019.
Additional information
EUPAN is an informal network that significantly influences the public administration initiatives of all its member countries. The network is made up of public administration practitioners in the Member States of the European Union, the European Commission and the observer countries. The network is organised around its main areas of interest, which include human resources management and organisational development, service innovation and delivery, but is also open to other areas of public administration such as public administration reform implementation, open governance etc. EUPAN is also a forum that facilitates its members in their exchange and sharing of views, experiences and best practices, which allows them to form a comparative vision in the area of public administration reform or modernisation undertaken by other Member States and, consequently, to promote similar strategies and actions in order to foster EU-wide unitary and consistent developments and advances that are responsive to the common area-specific challenges.