On Friday 21 November, all unions and staff associations (OSPs) were invited to a first meeting with the new Commissioner in charge of personnel (as well as budget) – Vice- President Kristalina Georgieva. Several members of her cabinet including the head – Mrs Mariana Hristcheva – were also in attendance.
The meeting was a very cordial and positive event, with Mrs Georgieva proving to be a warm and open person as well as a good, attentive and patient listener.
She (and her staff) appear to have “hit the ground running”, demonstrating an excellent grasp of staff issues and engaging into some serious discussion on a number of concrete matters, beyond the usual pleasantries which normally characterise such initial meetings.
As Generation 2004, we were delighted to hear Mrs Georgieva identify “post-2004” as one of the main problems which she was aware of. Indeed, during his intervention, Stefan Grech – Chair of Generation 2004 – remarked his satisfaction after so much time during which the post-2004 problem had been denied by the administration as if there was indeed no such problem.
Grech went on to remind the Vice-President that she had inherited a deeply-divided civil service, a large portion of which (post-2004) felt hurt, demotivated and outright betrayed. At this point, as shown during the post-2004 conference held only a few days before, all OSPs were agreeing on this and were calling upon the Commission to act as soon as possible to address a decade of injustice. Grech concluded by expressing the trust of Generation 2004 in Mrs Georgieva and confidence that she will indeed muster the political will to address the post-2004 issue once and for all; COURAGE Vice-President Georgieva – you will find us four-square behind you. Where there is a will there is a way, but where there is a political will, then there is a highway.
