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Joint HOSPEEM–EPSU visit with DG EMPL Director-General Mario Nava to UZ Leuven Gasthuisberg

On 27 May, the Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL), Mario Nava, visited the university hospital UZ Leuven Gasthuisberg. The visit was facilitated by the European Hospital and Healthcare Employers’ Association (HOSPEEM) and the European Public Service Union (EPSU) in the context of the European sectoral social dialogue in the hospital and healthcare sector.

The programme was organised by UZ Leuven Gasthuisberg, whose teams ensured a comprehensive and insightful visit. HOSPEEM and EPSU would like to express their appreciation to Gasthuisberg, its management, and the HR and communication teams for the excellent preparation and warm welcome, as well as to Zorgnet-Icuro, and to the local trade union representatives from ACV-CSC and BBTK-ABVV, for their contribution to the programme and exchanges.

The visit brought together representatives of the European Commission, social partners and UZ Leuven/KU Leuven for an exchange on the future of healthcare systems and healthcare work.

Discussions focused on social dialogue at hospital level, approaches to addressing labour shortages through recruitment, retention and working conditions, as well as skills development and training as key enablers for sustainable healthcare systems.

Participants also visited key clinical and training areas, including robotic cardiac surgery, the neonatal intensive care unit, and the STEPS skills centre, highlighting how innovation, advanced care delivery and structured skills training are integrated in daily hospital practice.
The visit provided an opportunity for social partners to engage with DG EMPL on shared priorities for the sector, including workforce sustainability, quality jobs, skills portability and the organisation of resilient healthcare services in a context of growing demand across the European Union.

The discussions underlined the importance of continued dialogue between European institutions, social partners and healthcare providers to support strong, resilient and well-functioning healthcare systems across the European Union.

Events, News, Project 2025-2027 on Tackling Staff Shortages and Ensuring Future-Proofing Skills in Health, Projects Hospeem

HOSPEEM and EPSU host EU workshop in Prague on healthcare workforce challenges

EPSU and HOSPEEM brought together healthcare trade unions, employers, policymakers and experts in Prague on 4-5 June 2026 for the fourth workshop of the EU-funded project “Tackling Staff Shortages and Ensuring Future-proofing Skills in Health”. The workshop focused on the ageing healthcare workforce and intra-EU mobility.

Participants discussed key challenges facing Europe’s health systems, including ongoing staff shortages, demographic change, evolving skills needs, and the retention of healthcare professionals. The exchanges highlighted a range of experiences and good practices from across Europe, with a focus on strengthening workforce planning, resilience and the sustainability of healthcare services.

The programme included high-level contributions from Adam Vojtěch, Minister of Health, and Dr Ladislav Švec, First Deputy Minister of Health of the Czech Republic, who addressed the future challenges of human resources in healthcare. Ms Yana Andersen from the WHO Regional Office for Europe (Health Workforce and Service Delivery) and Ms Maren Hopfe from the International Labour Organization (ILO), Labour Governance and Sectoral Policies Department presented the state of play on the ageing of the healthcare workforce and the report on Health workforce migration in the WHO European Region.

Presentation by Dr. Ladislav Švec, First Deputy Minister of Health of the Czech Republic

The workshop also brought together representatives from social partner organisations and stakeholders from amongst others Sweden, Finland, Romania, Ukraine and the Czech Republic, who shared national and sectoral perspectives on workforce developments and policy responses.

EPSU and HOSPEEM would like to thank the Confederation of Employers’ and Entrepreneurs’ Associations of the Czech Republic (UZS-CR) and the Trade Union of Health and Social Care Workers of the Czech Republic (OSZSP CR) for their hosting and support in organising the workshop.

Non classé Hospeem

Fourth Workshop of the Joint Project “Tackling Staff Shortages and Ensuring Future-proofing Skills in Health”

HOSPEEM and EPSU invites you to the fourth in-person workshop of the joint project on the topic of Intra-EU mobility and Ageing of the Healthcare Workforce in Prague, Czechia.

This workshop will explore the challenges posed by the ageing healthcare workforce across Europe, including the retirement of a large proportion of experienced healthcare professionals, and discuss practices attracting, retaining, and supporting both senior and younger workers in the sector. It will also examine the impact of intra-EU mobility and migration on healthcare systems, considering factors such as skills development, and ethical recruitment practices. Through discussion and exchange of best practices from EPSU and HOSPEEM member organisations, the workshop aims to identify solutions that strengthen healthcare workforce, support migrant and mobile healthcare workers, and encourage healthcare professionals to remain in or return to their countries of origin.

 

Three o'clock 4 – 5 June 2026 (1,5 days)

PinHotel Olsanka, Táboritská 1000/23, 130 00 Praha 3-Žižkov, Czechia

The reimbursement for the flight and accommodation is available for the EU participants:

  • Please follow this link to calculate eligible travel costs
  • Maximum reimbursement for accommodation – 107 EUR/night (for up to 2 nights)

The interpretation will be provided for English, Czechia and 3 languages to be determined by the number of requests

Please register here

The registration deadline is 20 April 2026

Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact o.horlach@hospeem.eu

News Hospeem

HOSPEEM signs the Call for action on Freedom to Stay by the SGI Network

Freedom to Stay: delivering the Single Market where people feel at home

Europe did not build the Single Market alone. From the outset, market integration was paired with cohesion policy so that prosperity could extend beyond capitals and core regions. That balance created trust, legitimacy, and shared progress in the European Union.

Today, that balance is under strain. Too many citizens experience the Single Market as working primarily for those who can move easily, while others feel compelled to leave their communities to access jobs, housing, or essential services. More than thirty years after its creation, the Single Market faces a simple but decisive test of credibility: can people rely on it to build a life where they feel at home, regardless of their location?

When territories lose access to essential services, people, jobs, companies and SMEs,, investments, and confidence soon follow. If opportunity continues to concentrate in a limited number of places, Europe risks drifting into a two-speed reality, regardless of its shared values and Treaty commitments.

Freedom to Stay: strengthening the Single Market from the ground up
The freedom to stay is not about limiting mobility. It is about making mobility a choice, not a necessity. It strengthens the Single Market by reconnecting competitiveness, territorial and social cohesion. It enables Europe to produce, innovate, and invest everywhere, because every place offers the foundations that citizens and businesses need, including reliable, accessible, affordable and high-quality services of general interest, skilled workers and strong local cohesion.

Services of General Interest (SGIs) sit at the heart of this vision. Access to affordable and high-quality SGIs is a fundamental right under the European Pillar of Social Rights and a shared EU value under Article 14 TFEU and Protocol No. 26. High-quality, affordable, and universal SGIs are not only pillars of social and territorial cohesion: They are structural assets for Europe’s competitiveness, resilience, and democratic trust.

A call for action to turn the Freedom to Stay into a reality
With this pledge the signatories want to address shared and systemic challenges: persistent investment gaps, skills shortages, digital transitions that risk widening territorial and social divides, demographic ageing, infrastructure deficits, regulatory fragmentation, and funding models that remain short-term or misaligned with the missions of SGIs.

Together, we speak with one voice: the Single Market requires a strong social and territorial foundation to deliver industrial ambition, demographic resilience, and public trust.

This pledge calls for:

1. Integrating the Freedom to Stay into the next Cohesion Policy cycle and the next Multiannual Financial Framework as a guiding objective.

2. Creating a “Freedom to Stay” indicator, designed to complement the European Semester and translate cohesion and SGI objectives into measurable outcomes.

3. Co-designing a European Action Plan on Services of General Interest, to deliver concrete follow-up to the Letta Report by developing a holistic Action Plan on SGIs.

Transforming the pledge into an EU-wide alliance
This pledge is a starting point of a broader alliance the signatories aim to create around the concept of Freedom to Stay, embracing all those parts of the economy and society who believe that this freedom should be an essential feature of a modern and inclusive Internal Market.

Find more on www.freedomtostay.eu

Events, Project 2025-2027 on Tackling Staff Shortages and Ensuring Future-Proofing Skills in Health, Projects Hospeem

Third Workshop of the Joint Project “Tackling Staff Shortages and Ensuring Future-proofing Skills in Health”

HOSPEEM and EPSU invites you to the third in-person workshop of the joint project on the topic of Digitalisation and Future-proofing Skills in Health in Rome, Italy.

The workshop will focus on how digitalisation and AI can soften the impact of labour shortage in the sector and support healthcare workforce in doing their job while ensuring the protection of workers and patients. In addition, the workshop will include an exchange of best practices on future-proofing skills and career pathways for the healthcare workforce as a crucial component to navigate in evolving landscape of the sector, improve patient-centred care and create a pool of well-trained and motivated healthcare workforce.

Three o'clock 5 – 6 March 2026 (1,5 days)

PinU.I.L. – Unione Italiana del Lavoro, Via Lucullo, 7, 00187, Rome, Italy

The reimbursement for the flight and accommodation is available for the EU participants:

  • Please follow this link to calculate eligible travel costs
  • Maximum reimbursement for accommodation – 114 EUR/night (for up to 2 nights)

The interpretation will be provided for English, Italian and 3 languages to be determined by the number of requests

Please register here

The registration deadline is 4 February 2026

Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact o.horlach@hospeem.eu

Events, News, Project 2025-2027 on Tackling Staff Shortages and Ensuring Future-Proofing Skills in Health Hospeem

Second Workshop on the Temporary Work Agency of the Joint HOSPEEM-EPSU TaSSEFSH Project

On 3–4 December, HOSPEEM and EPSU held the second workshop of their joint project, Tackling Staff Shortages and Ensuring Future-Proof Skills in Health, in Hilversum, the Netherlands. With strong support from the Nederlandse Vereniging van Ziekenhuizen (NVZ) and the Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging (FNV), representatives of employers and trade unions from across Europe met to exchange best practices on the involvement of temporary work agencies in the healthcare sector and on flexible working patterns in their countries. The workshop took place at Zonnenstraal, a historic former sanatorium in Hilversum.

Johan Siegert (FCB) and Niels Mooij (CAOP) delivered a presentation on the labour market for healthcare and Welfare – “AZW programma”, which was followed by the discussion. Marleen Vos opened the session on good practice presentations with the example from Groene Hart Ziekenhuis (GHZ), Gouda (the Netherlands), in which she explained the FIER programme with the activities of the internal flex agency of GHZ. André Renkema from NVZ delivered the presentation on the Care for the North initiative. Kevin Figgis from SIPTU, Ireland, presented an update on the state of temporary work agencies in the country.

On the second day, the workshop featured presentations on the state of play of the topic in Croatia by Maja Malic (HUP) and in Belgium by Myriam De Bruyn (Zorgnet-Icuro). Questions and comments from the participants followed the session.

This workshop was the second of five in the series. An external researcher will provide a summary of the findings.

Social Dialogue Hospeem

HOSPEEM-EPSU Joint Work Programme 2026-2028 for the European Sectoral Social Dialogue in the Hospital Sector

In November 2025, HOSPEEM and EPSU adopted the Joint Work Programme 2026–2028 addressing labour and skills shortages, preparedness, digitalisation, occupational safety and health, continuous professional development, and lifelong learning priorities jointly.
News Hospeem

Sylvie Slangen elected as Secretary General of HOSPEEM

On 20 November the HOSPEEM General Assembly elected Sylvie Slangen as Secretary General. 

Ms Slangen has been involved in HOSPEEM’s activities on behalf of Zorgnet-Icuro since 2020, since 2021 as a member of the Steering Committee. At European level she will be mainly responsible for leading the negotiations with the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) in the framework of the European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for the Hospital Sector as well as representing HOSPEEM at high level meetings and towards the European institutions and other relevant stakeholders. 

At national level Ms Sylvie Slangen represents Zorgnet-Icuro, the Belgian member organisation which represents the Flemish network of care organisations. She has long experience in the field of social dialogue and collective bargaining in the healthcare sector, be it within Belgium, the European hospital sector or the cross-sectoral European Social Dialogue. Since 2017 as Advisor on Human Resources, Organisation and Social Dialogue at Zorgnet-Icuro, she previously worked as Director of the association of Belgian social profit enterprises Unisoc. 

 “It is a privilege to be elected Secretary General of HOSPEEM, and I am sincerely grateful for the trust placed in me by members across Europe. At a moment where our Social Dialogue Committee has just adopted a new Joint Work Programme, I look forward to building on this renewed mandate to strengthen our collective work and deliver concrete outcomes for health and hospital employers. HOSPEEM has a long-standing tradition of constructive, forward-looking social partnership, and I am committed to ensuring that our organisation continues to shape EU policies. In a rapidly evolving health landscape, it is more important than ever that employers’ voices are heard clearly and consistently.” 

HOSPEEM would like to thank Marta Branca for her leadership as Secretary-General since 2021 as well as the Vice-Secretary General since 2018. HOSPEEM is happy to note her continued dedication to HOSPEEM, now as a member of the Steering Committee. Furthermore, HOSPEEM wishes to express its gratitude to its now outgoing Vice-Secretary General John Delamere who has represented the Health Service Executive (HSE Ireland) in HOSPEEM since 2010. 

 

For further information, please contact the HOSPEEM Secretariat (hospeem@hospeem.eu). 

Events, News Hospeem

HOSPEEM Becomes a Recognised Non-State actor at WHO European Region

The WHO Regional Committee for Europe has granted the regional accreditation status of non-state actor to HOSPEEM, the European Hospital and Healthcare Employers’ Association during its 75th session, held  on 28-30 October in Copenhagen, Denmark.

HOSPEEM Senior Policy Advisor Leonie Martin at the 75th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe, 28-30 October, Copenhagen, Denmark

WHO engages with non-State actors to strengthen global and regional health systems, including through participation in WHO meetings such as the Regional Committee for Europe, the highest decision-making body in the European Region.

Marta Branca, HOSPEEM Secretary General said:

HOSPEEM values the recognition of the role that social partners play in supporting the work of WHO Europe. Our organisation is keen to contribute to the collaborative efforts aimed at strengthening health systems across the European region.
Gaining non-State Actor status enables us to further support WHO Europe in implementing its newly adopted Second European Work Programme and bring our perspective to the table.

WHO engages with non-State actors to strengthen global and regional health systems, including through participation in WHO meetings such as the Regional Committee for Europe, the highest decision-making body in the European Region.

HOSPEEM’s contributions to the work of WHO Europe will include:

  • Supporting the EU-funded “Nursing Action” project;
  • Monitoring and advancing the Framework for Action on the health and care workforce in the WHO European Region 2023-2030;
  • Participating in WHO Europe learning cycles and sharing insights from the European Social Dialogue.

HOSPEEM looks forward to actively collaborating with WHO European Region and other stakeholders to promote resilient, inclusive, and sustainable health systems across the region.

Events, Project 2025-2027 on Tackling Staff Shortages and Ensuring Future-Proofing Skills in Health, Projects Hospeem

Second Workshop of the Joint Project “Tackling Staff Shortages and Ensuring Future-proofing Skills in Health”

HOSPEEM and EPSU invites you to the second in-person workshop of the joint project on the topic of Temporary Work Agency in the Netherlands

Three o'clock 3 – 4 December 2025

PinCampus Zonnestraal, Loosdrechtse Bos 7B, Hilversum, the Netherlands

The reimbursement for the flight and accommodation is available for the EU participants:

  • Please follow this link to calculate eligible travel costs
  • Maximum reimbursement for accommodation – 133 EUR/night (for up to 2 nights)

The interpretation will be provided for English, French, German, Italian and Dutch

Please register here

The registration deadline is 7 November 2025

Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact o.horlach@hospeem.eu

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