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Projects Hospeem

New EU-funded project on building a resilient healthcare system

BRIDGES is the EU-funded employers’ project on building a resilient healthcare system through exchange of good practices in digitalisation, preparedness, rural development and skills mix. HOSPEEM as a project coordinator together with KT (Finland), APHP (Portugal), HSE (Ireland), and SALAR (Sweden) as affiliated entities aim to foster cross-border learning among hospital employers, promote solutions to address labour and skills shortages and build resilient healthcare systems.

Four study visits to the premises of affiliated organisations will be organised during the project to facilitate the exchange of good practices among European countries in the areas of preparedness, rural healthcare development, digitalisation, and skill mix. These visits will provide participants with the opportunity to learn from practical experiences, explore innovative approaches, and discuss solutions to shared challenges across different healthcare systems. The project will be concluded by the final conference to provide main highlights of the study visits and enhance the capacity of the employers’ organisations through mutual learning on the national social dialogue and collective bargaining frameworks across Europe.

Projects 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, News, Projects Hospeem

HOSPEEM and EPSU workshop on digitalisation and future-proofing skills in Rome

The EU-funded TaSSEFSH project continued its work on addressing healthcare workforce challenges through a workshop held in Rome, focusing on digitalisation, artificial intelligence, and future-proofing skills in the health sector. The event gathered European and national stakeholders to exchange experiences on how healthcare systems can better respond to evolving workforce demands and service needs.

Key contributions from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL) highlighted the Union of Skills initiative. Insights were also shared by EUREGHA and AGENAS, alongside presentations on the BeWell project and the JA HEROES initiative, both focusing on workforce planning and capacity building in healthcare systems and upskilling and reskilling on green and digital transition.

National social partners contributed practical examples of workforce  and skills development, drawing on experiences from Germany, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Ukraine, and Georgia.

The workshop underlined the importance of cooperation between social partners. Participants agreed that sustained collaboration is essential to ensure healthcare professionals are equipped with the skills needed for future challenges and to support sustainable, high-quality healthcare systems across Europe.

The project report is available here.

Consultations Hospeem

HOSPEEM Contributes to the public consultations on skills portability initiative

Following the social partners’ hearing of 23 January 2026, HOSPEEM submitted its contribution to the consultation on the European Commission’s Skills Portability Initiative. It supports improved cross-border recognition and transparency of skills, aligned with national systems and without new administrative burdens. HOSPEEM stresses the importance of existing EU tools, knowledge exchange on recognition for third-country nationals, respect for national competence, and social partner involvement to address labour shortages and strengthen healthcare workforce mobility and preparedness.

Action 1  HOSPEEM contribution – also on EC website

Action 2 HOSPEEM contribution – also on the EC website

Action 3 HOSPEEM contribution – also on the EC website

Events, 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, Projects 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 provided a summary of the key findings available in the following report.

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.

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