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You can apply for EU Careers opportunities if you meet the general eligibility requirements and the specific conditions set out for each selection procedure.

In general, you must:

  • Be a citizen of an EU Member State 
  • Meet the required level of education and, where applicable, professional experience 
  • Have knowledge of at least two EU official languages 

Requirements vary depending on the role and profile (e.g. administrator, assistant, contract staff).

For full details on eligibility requirements, please see the Eligibility requirements page.

No, you don’t need a certificate or a diploma to prove the knowledge of your languages. You will sit the tests in the 2 languages chosen by you in the application form. 

As a general rule, candidates must have obtained the minimum entry qualifications specified in the Notice of Competition or Call for Expression of Interest by the application deadline. Qualifications awarded after this date are not taken into account.

However, by way of exception, for competition EPSO/AD/427/26 (Graduate Administrators – AD5), candidates must have a level of education corresponding to completed university studies of at least three years, attested by a diploma, the award of which must have been decided no later than 30 September 2026, regardless of the application deadline. Please see Annex III of the Notice of Competition for examples of minimum qualifications.

Permanent staff – open competitions:

You must provide supporting documents to confirm the information declared in your application (identity, education, and professional experience), as follows:

1. Identity: You must provide a copy of your valid identity card or passport.

2. Education and qualifications: 

  • Upload your secondary diploma (for AST-SC / AST competitions) or post-secondary diploma (for AST and AD competitions), along with the list of courses you followed.
  • Make sure to include the diploma that gives you access to the competition, as required in the Notice of Competition, point 3.3. “Specific conditions — qualifications and work experience” and that your name, stamps, signatures and serial numbers (if applicable) are visible.   
  • Add proof of any relevant traineeships and trainings, provided they contribute to meeting the eligibility requirements (please refer to the Notice of competition).

    Degrees, diplomas and/or certificates, whether issued in Member States or non-EU countries, must be recognised by a competent authority of a Member State. 
    See also: Do you accept my qualification/diploma issued in non-EU countries?

3. Professional experience:

You must provide documents proving the nature of your duties and the duration of your experience. Periods of professional experience that are not supported by a job description will not be considered by the Selection Board. Please note that no professional experience is required for the Graduate administrators competition (AD5).

Below are examples of the types of documents candidates should provide:

3.1: For salaried work: 

  • Documents from current and former employer(s) stating the nature and level of duties performed, such as letters from a hierarchical superior, appraisal reports describing your tasks, job descriptions provided by your employer, or contracts including detailed descriptions of the duties performed.
  • Employment contract(s) with beginning and end dates, or first and last pay slips.

All documents must be dated, include your name, and bear the official company header, stamp, as well as the name and signature of the person in charge.

3.2: For self-employed/ liberal professions: 

  • Invoices, contracts, order forms  
  • E-mail correspondence
  • Minutes of meetings
  • Tax documents
  • Proof of membership in a professional association

Important information

  • Supporting documents can be submitted in any of the 24 official EU languages and must justify the information provided in your application form. Each entry in your CV (education, professional experience) must be supported by relevant documents; otherwise, it will not be considered. 
  • It is the candidates' responsibility to provide the Selection board with all the information and documents needed to verify that they fulfil the conditions laid down in the notice of competition.
  • If you fail to provide sufficient documentary evidence by the deadline indicated in the Notice of Competition, you may be considered non-eligible and excluded from the competition. 
  • In general, no supporting documents are required to prove language knowledge (please check the Notice of Competition for exceptions). 
  • Candidates may be contacted by e-mail to provide additional information or documents relating to a particular diploma or professional experience, if needed.

Make sure to provide all the documents you have at your disposal and that you are entitled to share. Your documents will be handled in line with our privacy statement.

For more information, please check the Notice of Competition, in particular the section “Supporting documents” and the FAQ section on Eligibility.

Contract staff selection procedures

Candidates for contract staff selection procedures cannot upload supporting documents to their application/s in their EPSO account. 

Supporting documents will be requested at the stage of recruitment tests and/or before recruitment by the recruiting services.

Candidates must be able to provide documents supporting the information declared in their application form (qualifications, professional experience, etc.). Recruiting services will inform candidates which documents must be provided (copies or originals) and by when.

EPSO cannot provide information on the specific rules applied by individual recruiting services. The information below is provided for illustrative purposes only.

1. Identity: You must provide a copy of your valid identity card or passport.

2. Education and qualifications - You must provide:

  • Copies of diplomas and/or training certificates proving educational qualifications 
  • For diplomas or certificates issued outside the EU: a statement of equivalence issued by a competent authority of an EU Member State

3. Professional experience

All periods of professional activity must be supported by original documents or certified copies of the following documents:

3.1: For salaried work: 

 - Documents from current and former employer(s) stating the nature and level of duties performed, such as letters from a hierarchical superior, appraisal reports describing your tasks, job descriptions provided by your employer, or contracts including detailed descriptions of the duties performed. 

                 - Employment contract(s) with beginning and end dates, or first and last pay slips.

All documents must be dated, include your name, and bear the official company header, stamp, as well as the name and signature of the person in charge.

3.2: For self-employed/ liberal professions: 

  • Invoices, contracts, order forms  
  • E-mail correspondence
  • Minutes of meetings
  • Tax documents
  • Proof of membership in a professional association

3.3: For freelance translators: Documents attesting the time periods worked and the number of pages translated

3.4: For freelance interpreters: Documents attesting the number of days worked, and the languages interpreted from and into.

Yes, diplomas obtained outside the European Union are accepted if they are accompanied by a recognition document issued by a competent national authority of any EU Member State. Diplomas obtained in the United Kingdom require a recognition document if issued after 1 January 2021.

The recognition document must include at least the following information:

  • Candidate’s full name
  • Name of the university
  • Title of the diploma obtained

Please note that the statement of equivalency (which can be downloaded from the NARIC Ireland database) is not valid for this purpose.

Each Notice of Competition/contract staff selection procedure has its own eligibility requirements, which may include different combinations of educational qualifications and professional experience.

To cover the broadest diploma spectrum in each competition, candidates are encouraged to request recognition for all relevant diplomas declared in their application. 

Recognition documents must be issued by a competent national authority in an EU Member State. Below is a non-exhaustive list of competent national authorities in EU Member States:

Austria - Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research

Belgium (NL) - NARIC - Vlaanderen

Belgium (FR) - NARIC - Service des Équivalences

Belgium (DE) - NARIC - centre of German speaking community

Bulgaria - National Centre for Information and Documentation (NACID)

Croatia - The Agency for Science and Higher Education

Cyprus - Cyprus Council of Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications (KYSATS)

Czech republic - Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports

Denmark - Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science (under Ministry of Higher Education and Science)

Estonia - Estonian ENIC/NARIC - Academic recognition | Haridus- ja Noorteamet

Finland - Finnish National Agency for Education

France - France Éducation international

Germany - Central Office for Foreign Education – ZAB

Greece - DOATAP - Hellenic National Academic recognition and Information centre

Hungary - Hungarian Equivalence and Information Centre (Hungarian abbrev.: MEIK)

Ireland - Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI)

Italy -    Titoli accademici esteri | Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca

Latvia - AIC - Academic Information Centre

Lithuania - SKVC - Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education

Luxembourg - MESR - Ministry of Research and Higher Education

Malta - Malta Qualifications Recognition Information Centre (MQRIC)

Netherlands - International Credential Evaluation (IDW)

Poland - POLISH NATIONAL AGENCY FOR ACADEMIC EXCHANGE

Portugal - Directorate General for Higher Education (DGES)

Romania - National Centre for Recognition and Equivalence of Diplomas (CNRED)

Slovakia - Centre for recognition of diplomas (CRD)

Slovenia - ENIC-NARIC Slovenia

Spain - Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities - General Secretariat for Universities

Sweden - Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR)

The required educational qualifications and professional experience vary depending on the role and profile and are defined in each Notice of Competition (for permanent staff) or Call for Expressions of Interest (for contract staff). You can also consult our examples of types of qualifications accepted.

Important rules:

  • All eligibility conditions must be met by the application deadline, unless stated otherwise in the notice
  • Only experience gained after obtaining the required diploma is considered 
  • The Selection Board makes the final decision on eligibility based on supporting documents. Their decision will be reflected in your Candidate Account.

Educational qualifications

Minimum educational requirements vary by staff category:

For permanent officials:

  • Assistant level: post-secondary education or secondary education and appropriate professional experience.
  • Administrator level:  minimum of three years of completed university education.

For contract staff:

  • Function Group I: compulsory education.
  • Function Groups II and III: post-secondary education or secondary education and appropriate professional experience.
  • Function Group IV: minimum three years of completed university education.

Professional experience

Some positions require relevant professional experience.
For your experience to count, it must be real, paid work, carried out either as an employee or as a service provider, and relevant to the duties described in each Notice of Competition (for permanent staff) or Call for Expressions of Interest (for contract staff).

Types of professional experience accepted

  • Paid work: all forms of employment (employee, self-employed, freelancer, civil servant, etc.).
  • Voluntary work: only if compensated in some way and comparable to full-time work.
  • Internships: only if paid.
  • Military service: counts up to the legal duration in your country.
  • Maternity/parental/adoption leave: only if taken during an active employment contract.
  • PhD: counts as up to 3 years of experience if successfully completed.
  • Part-time work: counted pro-rata (e.g., 50% for 6 months = 3 months).

All candidates applying for EPSO selection procedures must be citizens of at least one EU Member State.

  • If you are a UK citizen and also hold the citizenship of an EU Member State, you may still apply. 
  • If you hold only UK citizenship, you are not eligible to apply for EPSO selection procedures following the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU. 

If you later obtain the citizenship of an EU Member State, you can update your citizenship in your EPSO account and apply again for future selection procedures.

See also: EU citizenship – rights and opportunities.

No. There is no age limit for applying. 

However, EU officials are automatically retired at the age of 66. For more information, please consult the EU Staff Regulations.