EPSO - becoming an EU civil servant

The European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) is in charge for selecting permanent staff for EU institutions. There are two stages: The testing phase and a recruiting phase. In this system the selection process features competency-based and knowledge-based testing.

Successful candidates get a place on the so-called reserve list. The EU instituions may only recruit their permanent staff from this list. EPSO uses several selection instruments and differently organises the selection processes with view to the required jobprofiles: Administrators (applicants must hold an university degree), assistants, linguists/translators and experts.The whole selection procedure shall be completed within 6 months - from the publication of the open tender to the set up of the reserve list.

months Administrators
for example Law, Finance
0 Publication of Notice of Competition and self-assessment
1 Online registration
2 Testing phase:
Field related multiple-choice test
Verbal + numerical + abstract reasoning and
written test
3
4
5
6 reserve list / recruitment
months Assistants
i.e. finances, secretariat
0 Publication of Notice of Competition and self-assessment
1 Online registration
2 Testing phase:
Field related multiple-choice test
Verbal + numerical + abstract reasoning and
written test
3
4
5
6 reserve list / recruitment
months Linguists
Translators
0 Publication of Notice of Competition and self-assessment
1 Online registration
2 Testing phase:
Translation tests
Verbal + numerical + abstract reasoning and
written test
3
4
5
6 reserve list / recruitment