First of all, Generation 2004 wishes you a great year in 2025 and will continue to fight to make your voices heard. Welcome to the first edition of the Newsletter for 2025. In this edition, we cover various topics that affect your daily life and career. We start by exploring the blurred lines between personal and professional life, particularly when it comes to mobile phones (check the recording of our online conference). We discuss how the burden of cost-saving measures is increasingly being shifted onto staff. Moreover, navigating the complexities of work-life balance is crucial, as highlighted in our coverage of the JSIS. Speaking of career advancement, we provide tips on how to increase your chances of getting a promotion or reclassification in 2025. For those of you keen to plan the year ahead, check the article on flexibility days 2025. Meanwhile, significant changes are underway in European Schools. Furthermore, the EEAS emphasises the need for clear responsibilities and support for Heads of Delegations, sheds light on the issue of cold temperatures in EEAS offices and informs you on the performance appraisals exercise for 2025. Finally, we remind you about the certification deadlines, invite you to sign the petition on the restructuring of Delegations and discuss the alarming reality of working for free. Last but not least, check our training offer with our partner Yasemos Europeos, on the EPSO competition for AD5 – Translators.
That’s all for now!
Enjoy the reading and get in touch if you believe we can help!
As Generation 2004, we have always stood for fairness, transparency, and the well-being of staff. Today, we must address the grim reality of the European Commission’s cost-saving measures and the devastating impact they have had on staff members and the workplace environment. Billions have been saved, but at what cost?
Friday, 24 January 2025, more than 60 colleagues joined Generation 2004 mini-conference during lunchtime to explore the topic of performance appraisals within the EEAS. The session provided valuable insights into the 2025 appraisal exercise, addressing both the written and unwritten rules of the Career Development Reviews (CDR). 
For those of you keen to plan the year ahead and organising things to look forward to, note that the 2025 flexibility days are already listed and available to request in sysper. These are the three public holidays every year where you[1] can choose to work and have the days back as annual leave[2]. Even if this is not an option for you at the moment, it’s good to know that this possibility exists. 
Generation 2004, together with 
Imagine this: you’re walking through the halls of the EEAS Belmont building in Brussels. It’s a cold day—no surprise there. But this isn’t the sort of chill you expect from a brisk Brussels winter. No, this is a bone-rattling cold that makes you wish you had packed a 
The Commission has started a new path to create options for those with children in 
*Update 17.01.2025 the rumoured delegation closures are now also
*Update 28.01.2025: this is a follow-up to 