17-07-2015

The 8_^th European Quality Conference (8QC), a two-day event, which is organized in cooperation with EUPAN members and the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), is entitled ‘Strengthening the capacity of public administration in tackling current and future challenges – Public administration as part of the solution’.

The European Public Administration Network (EUPAN) established a tradition of stimulating the quality dynamic in public administrations. After previous conferences in Portugal (2000), Denmark (2002), the Netherlands (2004), Finland (2006), France (2008), Poland (2011) and Lithuania (2013), the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU – together with EUPAN and the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) – will organise the 8th European Quality Conference on the 1_^st and 2_^nd October 2015, in the ‘Maison du Savoir-Cité des Sciences’ in Esch-Belval.

The economic crisis has affected public administrations’ functioning and has forced them to tackle the increasingly changing public needs and expectations. These challenges require public administrations to strengthen their innovative capacity and this will therefore be the key message of this 8th European Quality Conference. The conference will be constructed around the following main themes:

1. Public administration in the cycle of policy design, implementation and evaluation;
2. Strategic thinking in a future-oriented and innovative public administration;
3. Strengthening professionalism in building an innovative public administration;
4. Innovative service provisions through stakeholders and citizen - user involvement;
5. Societal responsibility.

This two-day conference will be a unique platform for European public sector organisations to share their good practices and experiences. Inspired by state-of-the-art keynote speakers presenting key issues in public administration modernisation, the discussion among the participants will be centered on how to strengthen the capacity of public administration in tackling current and future challenges.