EPO's Central Staff Committee (CSC) on EPO Social Dialogue

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Feb 10, 2026,
updated Feb 10, 2026

The Central Staff Committee (CSC) at the EPO has written to the ringleader of the "Alicante Mafia", António Campinos. It then wrote to staff to tell them about it:

Open letter to the President

Dear Colleagues,

On 1 December 2025, the Social Dialogue unit informed that the Office was preparing the Social Agenda for 2026 and asked the Central Staff Committee (CSC) to share any topics to be included.

In an open letter to the President sent on 8 December 2025, the CSC replied that it expected that the Office would refrain from putting on the Social Agenda any detrimental reform at the expense of staff rights and benefits. In addition, the CSC kindly requested the Social Agenda to include the following:

1. Gender parity and specific needs
2. Conversion of fixed-term contracts to permanent contracts
3. Improvement of career prospects
4. Education & childcare allowance

Since then, the President has not provided any answer to this letter. Instead, the President has now imposed on the Social Agenda a further erosion of salaries, pensions and benefits.

The letter in question is dated Sunday:

European Patent Office
80298 Munich
Germany

Central Staff Committee
Comité central du personnel
Zentraler Personalausschuss

centralSTCOM@epo.org

Reference: sc25075cl

Date: 08/12/2025

European Patent Office | 80298 MUNICH | GERMANY
To: Mr António Campinos (President of the Office)

By email:
To: president@epo.org

OPEN LETTER

Social Agenda 2026

Dear Mr President,

In an email of 1 December, Social Dialogue informed that the Office is currently preparing the Social Agenda for 2026 and would like to ask the Central Staff Committee (CSC) to share any topics to be included in the Social Agenda 2026.

The CSC expects that the Office will refrain from putting on the Social Agenda any detrimental reform at the expense of staff rights and benefits. In addition, we kindly request the Social Agenda to include the following:

1. Gender parity and specific needs

2. Conversion of fixed-term contracts to permanent contracts

3. Improvement of career prospects

4. Education & childcare allowance

We are looking forward to receiving a positive answer to your request.

Sincerely yours,

Derek Kelly
Chairman of the Central Staff Committee

They've refrained from mentioning the industrial actions. █