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Pan-European Regional Council

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Structure

Membership of the PERC is based on affiliation to the ITUC. It consists of 90 national centres affiliated to the ITUC. The PERC is also open to Global Union Federations at the international level and to European Industry Federations at the European level. The institutions of the PERC are the General Assembly, the Executive Committee, the Steering Committee and the Secretariat.

The General Assembly meets at least once every 4 years to determine priorities for action in the region, receive reports on activities, consider any rule changes, approve the membership of the Executive Committee, and elect the PERC President, General Secretary and Vice-Presidents.

The 4th PERC General Assembly in December 2019 elected Irakli Petriashvili, leader of the Georgian Trade Union Confederation, as the President of PERC for second term. It elected Vice-Presidents to form a balanced and committed leadership team to guide the PERC programme implementation and to support the President and the Secretariat. The current Vice-Presidents are: Ms. Marija Hanževački, NHS, Croatia; Mr. Wolfgang Katzian, ÖGB, Austria; Ms. Nataliya Levytska, KVPU, Ukraine; Ms. Julie Lødrup, LO, Norway; Mr. Sattar Mohbaliyev, AHIK, Azerbaijan; Mr. Piotr Ostrowski, OPZZ, Poland; Ms. Inga Ruginienė, LPSK, Lithuania.
ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch is the General Secretary of PERC.

The Executive Committee meets at least once a year to receive reports on activities, identify priorities and define action plans. Where necessary it can set up networks, programmes, task forces for addressing specific issues and committees, as well as receiving the accounts and preparing the meetings of the General Assembly.

The PERC Steering Committee is composed of the General Secretary, President, Vice-Presidents, Executive Secretary, and presidents of Women’s and Youth Committees shall meet at least twice a year to assure the continuity of the PERC operation, treat matters of urgency as mandated by the Executive Committee and to prepare meetings of the Executive Committee.

The Secretariat is composed of the PERC General Secretary and officers designated by him or her and by the General Secretary of the ITUC. An Executive Secretary is appointed by the ITUC and ETUC General Secretaries acting in concert. The Executive Secretary is Anton Leppik.

The PERC sets up different task forces to fulfill its objectives and works with various sub-regional and transnational trade union forums and networks, such as the South-East European Trade Union Forum and the Baltic Sea Trade Union Network.

Networks

Through networking the PERC ensures sharing of experiences and contributes to raising capacities of different trade union experts of Europe and subregions.

The human and trade union rights network (HTUR) is a pan-European network, while networks of trade union economists and legal experts are functioning in the Balkans and the NIS region. Health and safety experts’ network is established also for the NIS region.


Cooperation with CGU, GUFs/EIFs

The PERC works together with Global Union Federations and European Industrial Federations on specific initiatives, subjects and countries. It also coordinates with the Council of Global Unions on cross-sectoral agendas.


Committees

Women’s Committee

The 1st meeting of the PERC Executive Committee on 19 March 2007 decided to approve the establishment of Women’s Committee of the PERC and requested the General Secretary, in collaboration with the ETUC Women’s committee and the Women’s network active in the CEE-NIS region to come up with proposals for the rules, composition and terms of reference for ratification by the Executive Committee meeting on 3 March 2008.

In the meeting of its Executive Committee of 3 March 2008, the PERC adopted the procedure with regard to the setting up of the PERC Women’s structure and its composition.

The Founding Conference of the PERC Women’s Committee gathering women’s representatives from 43 countries took place on 30 and 31 October 2008 in Turin.

The Founding Conference formally established the Women’s structure of the PERC. The Conference elected the twelve members of the Women committee, discussed and adopted the statutes of the newly created structure and had a first discussion on the plan of action for the 2009/2010. The statutes of the PERC Women’s Committee include articles concerning the composition and functioning of the Women’s Conference, Women’s Committee and the Presidium, the procedure for nomination and elections, representation and cooperation, working methods.

The working plan considered the objectives included in the program of PERC in line with the ITUC action plan on achieving equality between men and women within the trade unions, which involve:

• organising women workers;
• guaranteeing women’s involvement in trade union positions of authority and responsibility; Increasing women’s involvement in decision-making bodies;
• to include gender equality in all trade union policies and collective bargaining;
• To achieve complete equality between men and women and to fight all forms of discrimination.

The 5th PERC Women conference took place in Brussels, Belgium, 14-15 December 2022.

The main purpose of the Conference was to evaluated the actions implemented by the Women Committee since 2016, formulated priorities for the 2023-2026 period as well as for the preparation of the PERC General Assembly in 2023 and recomposed the Women Committee for the next 4 year period.

The Conference agreed that the Women Committee shall focus on:
-  Eradicating gender based violence and harassment in the world of work;
- Building a care economy;
- Realizing equal pay for work of equal value;
- Upholding gender equality and inclusion for peace and democracy;
- PERC Women Committee against war in Ukraine;
- Promotion of existing conventions of the ILO (non-discrimination, OSH, social security, maternity protection, domestic workers and others) and contributing to building of new standards (e.g. on biohazard);
- Promote women in decision making positions in trade unions at all levels.

The Conference elected Roya Garayeva from AHIK-Azerbaijan as its new Chair; Natalya Levitskaya, KVPU Ukraine and Merita Yldiz HAK-IS Turkey as Vice-Chairs; and members of the Committee: Arjola Alika, Albania, BSPSH; Sabine Slegers, Belgium, ACLBV/CGSLB; Biljana Skrbic, Bosnia-Hercegovina, KSBiH (SSRS); Bistra Karadimova, Bulgaria, CITUB; Raisa Liparteliani, Georgia, GTUC; Christina Stockfisch, Germany, DGB; Brigitta Szabo-Zsura, Hungary, LIGA and Joa Bergold, Sweden, LO.

The Committee meets twice a year to discuss the annual action plans and has its conference once in two years.

Youth committee

The PERC Youth Committee is elected by a PERC Youth Conference organised once in two years.

The PERC, through its Youth Committee, strives:

  • To promote a rights-based approach – based on the various international and European labour and social standards
  • To promote specific programmes to facilitate the transition of young people from school to working life; vocational training programmes; and active employment and labour market policies aimed at providing decent work for all young people;
  • To ensure the full integration and active participation of young people in trade union organisations.
  • To ensure the integration of the concerns and needs of young workers/people into trade union policies, campaigns and actions.

The Conference in Istanbul, 06-07 October 2022, elected the 7th PERC Youth Committee.

The Conference elected new PERC Youth Committee (the 7th). It consists of:

President:
Mr Yury Varlamov, KTR, Russia

Vice Presidents:
Ms Emilija Zdravkovska, UNASM, North Macedonia
Ms Zeynep Kandaz, DISK, Turkey

Members:
Ms Nargiz Mamedova, AHIK, Azerbaijan
Mr Vedran Jurišić, KSBiH Bosnia-Hercegovina
Ms Zornitsa Petrova, CITUB, Bulgaria
Ms Tamar Surmava, GTUC, Georgia
Mr Philipp Siewert, DGB, Germany
Mr Nikola Bobic, CATUS, Serbia



Official documents

Constitution and Programme

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Calendar

PERC Calendar of events

Address book

International Trade Union Addresses
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Main Themes
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  • Organisational development
  • Covid -19
Campaigns
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  • 7 Horrors
  • Countries at Risk : Belarus
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