The European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) is responsible for selecting staff to work for the institutions and agencies of the European Union including the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, the European Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the European External Action Service, the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and the European Ombudsman. Each institution is then able to recruit staff from among the pool of candidates selected by EPSO. On average, EPSO receives around 60,000-70,000 applications a year with around 1,500-2,000 candidates recruited by the European Union institutions.
Selection policy
Open Competitions
The selection of staff is based on a system of open competitions. They are organised by EPSO for permanent positions as career civil servants, and for a limited number of fixed term contracts in accordance with the Staff Regulations of the EU institutions, on the basis of harmonised criteria. EPSO cannot consider any application or CV submitted outside the framework of an official competition or selection procedure.
The details of an open competition are set out in a Notice of Competition, which is published in the Official Journal of the European Union and made available on the EPSO website. The Notice includes information on the selection criteria, the job profile and duties involved, the number of places on the reserve list, the qualifications and experience required, and the format of the tests at each stage of the selection process. To reach a wider range of candidates in the Member States, additional information about open competitions may be published in the national press, specialised press or electronic media. EPSO also participates in recruitment fairs for graduates in the Member States.
The schedule of current and planned competitions is available on the EU Careers/EPSO Website.
Selection Criteria
The eligibility requirements for EPSO selection procedures vary depending on the profile sought. In general, EU citizenship and thorough knowledge of an EU language plus satisfactory knowledge of a second official EU language are required.
Profiles sought
The majority of EU staff is made up of permanent civil servants, who are selected through a series of competitive examinations, commonly known as an open competition, which are organised by EPSO. However, many senior staff are recruited from outside the EU civil service.
The EU institutions also employ staff on a temporary basis and these are also selected by means of tests organised by EPSO.
The staff of the EU institutions fall into one of the following categories:
Permanent officials
Permanent staff is divided into three categories: administrators (AD), assistants (AST) and assistants-secretaries (AST-SC)
The work at the EU Institutions covers a huge range of areas and types of work. Graduate level administrators' work include formulating and negotiating draft EU laws, managing EU-wide programmes, or administering aid projects in the developing world. Equally, employees might also be participating in a specific scientific research programme, or for example, drafting the decision of the European Court of Justice or the European Ombudsman.
Assistants and Assistants-Secretaries contribute to implementing policies in various areas of EU activities or are responsible for secretarial and clerical work and ensuring the efficient operation of an administrative unit. They also play an important role in the internal management of the Institutions, notably in budgetary and financial affairs, HR, IT or librarianship.
Contract agents
EPSO also organises the selection of contract agents, who are employed for a temporary period with an initial contract running for a maximum of three to six years, depending on the type of the contract. Contract agents are recruited, for example, to do manual or administrative support–service tasks or provide additional capacity in specialised fields where officials with the required skills are not available.
Temporary agents
EPSO does not organise the selection of temporary agents. The institutions' vacancy notices and employee profiles are published on the EPSO Website and sent to the Permanent Representations of the Member States. Temporary agents may be employed to perform a range of highly specialised or temporary tasks for a maximum period of six years.