The resons that led to the creation of Generation 2004 may be discovered in the article published by Pascal Le Grand when he ceased his functions as Chair of our organization. We quote him here:

I served as vice-chair of the organisation for the first 5 years of its existence and then as the chair since 2018. In our previous newsletter we told you of the sad news of Fernando Sanchez Amillategui’s passing last April*, following a long disease. Fernando was one of Generation 2004’s founding members and initial driving force. With him, everything started for Generation 2004 when Commissioner Šefčovič, then Commissioner in charge of Human Resources, announced a reopening of the staff regulations in 2011. Those of us who had been recruited after 2004 had more or less come to terms with the reform. However, as we were slowly accepting the unfair treatment that had been imposed on us, DG HR embarked on yet another reform and Fernando thought this was not justified and that the Commissioner had been misled by DG HR. As a response, him and a group of likeminded colleagues decided to launch a petition and then ask for an appointment with the Commissioner to explain the situation to him.

Many of you signed this petition. I have removed the names for confidentiality, but we got more than 600 signatures when our objective had been 100.

The success of this petition made us realise that we were onto something and that we had to do more. We created Generation 2004 in 2012, the same year we ran for the staff elections in Brussels, and got 20% of the votes.

*) April 2019