Open competitions for permanent staff:

Once a reserve list is established, the EU institutions manage their own recruitment based on their staffing needs.

When vacancies arise, the institutions:

• consult the reserve list to identify candidates whose profiles best match the job requirements; 
• invite shortlisted candidates for an interview (candidates may be contacted by more than one institution); 
• make job offers to successful candidates. 

In some cases, vacancies may also be published directly in the candidate account. Candidates on the relevant reserve list can then apply through their account.

Being placed on a reserve list does not guarantee recruitment.
 

Contract staff selection procedures:

Candidates who successfully pass the EPSO tests may be invited for an interview by the recruiting institution.

Successful candidates may then be offered a contract staff position.

Please note that:

• the recruitment process may vary slightly between institutions depending on their needs; 
• each institution is responsible for conducting interviews and making final recruitment decisions.

Reserve lists are generally valid for one year (or three years for specialist competitions). Their validity may be extended by EPSO depending on the recruitment needs of the EU institutions. Decisions on extensions are usually taken shortly before the list expires and are published on the EU Careers website.

The validity period starts from the moment successful candidates are notified of their placement on the reserve list. 

The initial validity period is also published on the Reserve Lists page. Any delay in publishing the list on this page has no impact on the recruitment process itself.

You can request a review of any decision of the Selection Board or EPSO that affects your progress at any stage of the selection procedure, if you consider that there has been a material error or a breach of the competition procedure rules.

Contract staff selection procedures

If you have a serious concern about the content of a multiple-choice question in a contract staff selection test, please contact us within one (1) calendar day (i.e. by the end of the day after the tests).

You should provide a clear statement of the circumstances, including your candidate number, as outlined in the Call for Expression of Interest.

If an item is found to be non-compliant with EPSO's quality criteria, the following corrective measures will be applied:

• The item will be corrected or removed from the database;
• Corrective measures may be taken if EPSO finds that a candidate was negatively impacted. In such cases, EPSO will grant that candidate an additional point for each annulled question, up to a maximum of one point per question in total.

Candidates whose test results cannot be impacted by the outcome of their complaint — either because they achieved the pass scores or because they would not reach the pass score(s) even if their complaint were upheld — will not have corrective measures applied.

Complaints submitted after the deadline or which do not clearly describe the contested question(s) and/or alleged error(s) will not be considered. Complaints relating only to translation issues without further explanation will also not be considered.

Open competitions for permanent staff

If you have a serious doubt about the content of a test (written test or field-related MCQ), please contact us via the contact form in your Single Candidate Portal account within 3 calendar days of the test date.

You should clearly describe the question or test part concerned and the nature of the alleged error and include your candidate number (see the relevant Annex of the Notice of Competition).

If the identified test content does not comply with EPSO’s quality criteria, corrective measures may be applied. You will receive a reply to your complaint shortly before the publication of your test results in your candidate account.

Examples of how to describe a problem with a test question

When submitting a complaint, please describe the question concerned and the alleged error as clearly and specifically as possible. For example:

• ‘There was a question about calculating the average speed for cycling from Cambridge to Grantchester; the necessary data was missing in the table.’ 
• ‘The question was about the rain forest; due to a typo the correct reply was referring to a different year than mentioned in the question.’
• ‘The question concerning weather forecasts – the second sentence had an expression (‘in the blink of an eye’) that is not common language so I could not find the correct reply’. 
• ‘The question was about trees: the words "small" and "little" are in my language two distinctly different things, in the question they are used interchangeably.’

These examples are illustrative. Please provide as much detail as possible about the alleged error.

Your personal conviction as to how your qualifications and experience should have been evaluated is subjective and cannot replace the Selection Board’s assessment. It does not constitute evidence of a manifest error by the Board.

The Selection Board’s evaluation criteria usually include the relevance of subjects studied, diplomas obtained, the level of the diploma, and the level and duration of professional experience.

Different reasons may explain a decision to exclude a candidate based on the pre-established selection criteria:

• Your diploma is not sufficiently related to the field of the competition; 
• Your diploma is not of the required level or duration; 
• Your experience is not sufficiently related to the field; 
• Your experience in the field is too short; 
• You have insufficient relevant experience after obtaining the required diploma for this competition.

No. These are covered by the secrecy of the Selection Board proceedings under the Staff Regulations.

Yes, except in cases where the test content is intended to be reused. In such cases, you will be informed in advance in the Notice of Competition and/or in the invitation letter to the tests concerned.

The candidate concerned should immediately inform EPSO so that the necessary measures can be taken in order to avoid any kind of conflict of interests.