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III Notices

European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO)

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NOTICE OF OPEN COMPETITIONS

(2005/C 273 A/01)

The European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) is organising the following open competitions, based on tests, to constitute a reserve pool from which to recruit

LINGUISTIC ADMINISTRATORS (1)

(CONFERENCE INTERPRETERS — AD 5)

for BULGARIAN — EPSO/AD/33/05

for ROMANIAN — EPSO/AD/34/05

CONTENTS

A.   DUTIES AND ELIGIBILITY (PROFILE SOUGHT)

Open competitions EPSO/AD/33-34/05 are being held to recruit linguistic administrators (conference interpreters) (AD 5) for Bulgarian or Romanian.

The competitions will be used to draw up reserve lists from which to fill vacant posts in the EU institutions (in particular the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the European Communities).

Number of successful candidates by competition:

Please note that the tests for the above competitions may be held simultaneously. You may therefore apply for one of these competitions only. You must choose which one when you register online, and cannot change it after the closing date for registration.

To ensure that all general texts relating to the competition and all communication between applicants and EPSO are clearly understood on both sides, the competition notices are being published solely in English, French and German. These three languages will also be used for the invitations to the various tests and correspondence between EPSO and candidates.

The language you choose for the admission tests will be the language used for communicating with you.

I.   DUTIES

The job of interpreter calls for exceptional adaptability (frequent meetings and irregular hours), an ability to grasp issues of all kinds, often complex in nature, react rapidly to changing circumstances and communicate effectively. You should be able to work frequently under pressure, both on your own and in a team, and adjust to a multicultural working environment. You will be expected to develop your professional - including technological - skills throughout your career. You may be asked to expand your language combination to meet the needs of your institution.

The duties of a conference interpreter involve ensuring that proceedings of meetings in one of the official EU languages are correctly interpreted into another of those languages. This work can entail either simultaneous or consecutive interpreting. This requires studying both the subject matter of the meetings and terminology lists in advance (2).

Interpreters may be asked to evaluate the work of freelance conference interpreters and carry out administrative duties relating to interpretation.

Working as a conference interpreter can involve frequent business travel, with the exception of interpreters at the Court of Justice, who work exclusively in Luxembourg.

You can find more information on the European Community’s interpreting services on the Internet sites of the three institutions concerned:

II.   ELIGIBILITY (PROFILE SOUGHT)

You may apply for this competition if, on the closing date for online registration and submission of paper applications (see section D), you meet the following requirements:

1.   Qualifications

You must have

The selection boards will allow for differences between education systems. For examples of the minimum qualifications required, see the tables annexed to the Guide for Applicants (3) (on EPSO’s website) for each category. Note that these are examples only - more stringent requirements may be set in any given notice of competition.

2.   Professional experience

No professional experience is required except for candidates under section A, point II(1)(iii).

3.   Languages

‘Language combination’ means the languages you use as a conference interpreter in your work. Working languages are either ‘active’ or ‘passive’ languages, and defined below as ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘C’ languages.

Active languages are those into which you interpret. There are two types of active language:

Language A

Your main language, into which you work from all your working languages, either simultaneously or consecutively.

Language B

The language into which you work either simultaneously or consecutively, from one or more of your other languages (this is not your main language but you have a perfect command of it).

Passive languages are those from which you interpret and which you understand fully. Passive languages are referred to as ‘language C’.

The official languages of the European Union and the acceding countries are:

Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovakian, Slovenene, Spanish, Swedish.

You must have one of the language combinations described in options 1, 2 or 3 below:

OPTION 1 (A + CC)

OPTION 2 (A + B)

OPTION 3 (A* + CC)

(A* = an official language of the European Union)

In all cases, passive knowledge of other official languages (‘C’ languages) of the European Union or an acceding country is an advantage. If you are seeking to be recruited to the Court of Justice, an understanding of written French is required.

Your language knowledge must be proven by supporting documents, which should be attached to your application. If you have no such supporting documents, you should explain in detail, on a separate sheet, how you acquired your knowledge of these languages.

You must state in the online registration form (4) and the paper application, which languages you choose for each of the different tests. If there are any discrepancies between the information given in your electronic registration form and that given in your official application form, EPSO will consider the official application form to be authoritative.

4.   You must:

B.   ADMISSION TESTS

EPSO is organising admission tests to make a preliminary selection allowing candidates’ access to this competition.

EPSO will decide to organise these tests for the candidates who meet the admission requirements (see A.II) either:

You will be notified of the date when you receive your invitation to the tests.

Admission tests — marking

You will sit tests (a) and (b) in English (EN), French (FR) or German (DE), as specified on the online registration form.

Wrong answers in these tests will not be penalised.

Candidates who score at least the pass-mark in each of these tests will be invited to the oral interpreting tests and to the general test.

C.   SUCCESSIVE STAGES OF THE COMPETITION

1.   Oral interpreting tests – marking

Each oral test will be marked out of 20 (pass-mark: 10). The maximum duration of the passage of speech to be interpreted will be six minutes for consecutive and 12 minutes for simultaneous interpreting. If you fail to attain the pass-mark for either test, you will fail the competition.

Option 1: candidates who have the competition language as active language A plus two passive languages (C) (see A.II: Option 1, A + CC).

Option 2: candidates with two active languages (A + B) (see A.II: Option 2, A + B).

Option 3: candidates with an active language A* which is not the competition languageplus two passive languages (C), one of which is the competition language (see A.II: Option 3, A* + CC).

2.   General test — marking

Interview with the members of the selection board focusing on your knowledge of the European Union, its institutions and main activities, general knowledge, motivation, ability to work in a multicultural environment within the European civil service, both independently and in a team. This interview will be held in English, French or German, as specified in your online registration.

Time allowed: 30 minutes.

This test will be marked out of 40 (pass-mark: 20).

3.   Place of tests

Oral tests will be organised in Brussels.

4.   Reserve lists

The selection board will place on the reserve lists, for each competition, the names of the candidates (see section A, number of successful candidates) (5) who obtained the highest combined marks for all the oral tests (see C.1 and C.2) and the pass-mark in each. They will be sorted by language and option and listed alphabetically.

The reserve lists, together with their expiry date, will be published (6) in the Official Journal of the European Union and on the EPSO website (7).

D.   HOW TO APPLY

Please refer also to the Guide for Applicants (3), which can be found on the EPSO website (7). It contains detailed instructions to help you submit your application correctly.

Your application will be rejected if, by the closing date, you have not:

The closing date for registration is 6 December 2005. Online registration will not be possible after 12.00 midday Brussels time on that day.

1.   Creating an EPSO profile/online registration

Before registering, you should carefully check whether you meet all the eligibility criteria (see Section A, particularly concerning the types of qualification required).

If you want to apply, you must register via the internet by going to the EPSO website (7) and following the instructions there concerning the various stages of the procedure.

It is your responsibility to complete your online registration in time (8). We strongly advise you not to wait until the last few days before applying, since heavy Internet traffic or a problem with the Internet connection could lead to the online registration being terminated before you complete it, thereby obliging you to repeat the whole process. Once the deadline for the submission of registrations has passed, you will not be able to register.

On completion of your online registration, you will receive on screen a registration number which you must not this will be your reference number in all matters concerning your application. Once you receive this number, the process is finished, it is the confirmation that we have registered the data you entered.

If you do not receive a number, your application has not been registered!

Please note that you must have an e-mail address. This will be used to identify you. The information you must enter in your registration includes the languages you choose (see A.II.3), and the particulars of your qualifications (title, name of issuing establishment and date obtained).

Once registered, you can use the website (7)(click on ‘Ongoing competitions’) to follow the progress of the competition.

If you have a disability that prevents you from registering online, you may request - preferably by fax - a paper version of the form (9), which you should fill in, sign and return by registered mail, postmarked no later than the closing date for registration. All subsequent communication between EPSO and you will be by post.

You must enclose with your application form a certificate attesting your disability, issued by a recognised body. You should also set out on a separate sheet of paper any special arrangements you think are needed to make it easier for you to take part in the tests.

2.   Sending the paper application by registered post

In addition to registering online, you must print out and complete the application form on the EPSO website (7) and send it to EPSO by the closing date (10).

Documents to enclose

Your application must give full details of your citizenship, studies, training, traineeships and professional experience (where necessary). You must enclose with it the following documents:

You should send only uncertified photocopies of these documents.

The application form must be completed in full, i.e. you may not refer to any previous application forms submitted or any other documents enclosed with such applications. None of the documents submitted with your application will be returned.

Signing and sending the form

It is your responsibility to make sure that your application form, duly completed, signed and accompanied by all the supporting documents, is sent in time (10) by registered post (the postmark will serve as proof of the date of sending) to the following address:

Scrutiny of applications

You will automatically be disqualified if:

A CURRICULUM VITAE IS NOT A SUPPORTING DOCUMENT.

3.   Invitations to the tests

Information concerning invitations to the admission and oral tests will be available only on the EPSO website (7). You can access it by entering the user name and password you specify when registering. You are responsible for updating any change, via your EPSO profile, in your postal or e‐mail address.

It is also your responsibility to keep track of the progress of the competition by consulting your EPSO profile, ensuring that for each stage you can access the information relevant to your application. If you find that you cannot do this, notify EPSO immediately by e-mail (11).

As far as possible you will be asked to sit the admission tests in the city you choose in the online registration form. For organisational reasons you will not be able to switch to another venue unless you can prove that you have changed residence and have informed EPSO of this no later than three weeks before the planned date of the pre-selection tests.

Oral tests will normally be held in Brussels.

4.   Reserve lists

The names of the successful candidates (see C. 4) will be included in the reserve lists.

5.    If, at any stage in the procedure, it is established that the information in your online registration form or official application form is incorrect you will be disqualified from the competition.

6.   To facilitate the administration of the competition, in all correspondence you should give yourfull name as in your application and the number of the competition, together with the reference number you received when your online registration was accepted.

E.   GENERAL INFORMATION

1.   Equal opportunities

The European Union institutions apply a policy of equal opportunities and accept applications without distinction on the grounds of sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic characteristics, language, religious, political or other convictions or opinions, belonging to a national minority, financial situation, birth, disability, age, sexual orientation, marital status or family situation.

2.   Selection board

A selection board is appointed for each competition. It is made up of members representing both the Administration and the Staff Committee of the institutions. The names of its members will be published on the EPSO website (7) approximately two weeks before the preselection tests.

You are strictly forbidden to make any contact with the members of the selection board, either directly or indirectly. Any infringement of this rule will disqualify you from the competition.

EPSO is responsible for all communication with candidates until the competition is completed.

3.   Approximate timetable

Depending on the total number of candidates, the competition will take approximately nine months from start to finish, beginning on the final date for registration.

Full details will be available on the EPSO website (7).

4.   Requests from candidates for access to information concerning them

Under the selection procedures, candidates are acknowledged to have a specific right of access to certain information concerning them directly and individually, on the conditions described below. In accordance with this right, EPSO may provide candidates who so request with supplementary information concerning their participation in the competition. Candidates must send any requests for information in writing to EPSO within a month of being notified of their results in the competition. EPSO will reply within a month of receiving the request. Requests will be dealt with in such a manner as to take account of the confidential nature of the proceedings of selection boards, as provided for in the Staff Regulations (Annex III, Article 6) and will comply with the rules on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data. Examples of the type of information which may be supplied are given in the Guide for Applicants, Section III, point 2.

5.   Requests for applications to be reconsidered — appeal procedures — complaints to the European Ombudsman

See Annex.

6.    Recruitment

If you are placed on the reserve list you will be eligible for appointment as a probationary official as and when required by the European institutions, in Brussels, Luxembourg or any other place of activity.

If you are offered a post, you will be asked to produce the originals of all the requisite documents, in particular your qualifications, so that copies can be authenticated.

Recruitment will depend on posts and funds becoming available.

Depending on the nature of a post, successful candidates on the reserve list may initially be offered a temporary contract; in this case, their names will remain on the reserve list.

Article 29(1)(b) of the Staff Regulations refers to the possibility for officials to request a transfer to another institution or agency at any time in their careers. However, in the interests of the service, during their first three years of service newly recruited officials are transferred only in exceptional and duly justified cases. Any such transfer is subject to the agreement of both the institution or agency that originally recruited the official and the institution or agency in receipt of the transfer request.

7.   Retirement scheme

You should note that the retirement age for staff is laid down in the Staff Regulations as follows:

8.   Grade

This reserve pool of linguistic administrators (conference interpreters) is for the grade AD 5.

9.   Remuneration

Basic monthly salary as at 1 January 2005:

grade AD 5, first step: EUR 3 837,37

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(1)  The European Union institutions apply a policy of equal opportunities and accept applications without distinction on the grounds of sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic characteristics, language, religious, political or other convictions or opinions, belonging to a national minority, financial situation, birth, disability, age, sexual orientation, marital status or family situation.

(2)  Interpreters working for the Court of Justice are also required to study the procedural documents of the case in detail, either in the original language or in French, before each assignment.

(3)  http://www.europa.eu.int/epso/on-line-applications/guide_en.htm.

(4)  For practical reasons this form is available in English, French or German only.

(5)  Since the appointing authority has asked the selection board to select only this number of applicants, the board is unable to exceed this limit. However, where a number of applicants tie for the last available place, all will be admitted to the next stage of the competition.

(6)  A successful candidate may explicitly request that his/her name not be published.

(7)  http://www.europa.eu.int/epso.

(8)  No later than 12.00 midday, Brussels time, on 6 December 2005.

(9)  Write to EPSO - Info-recruitment - CORT 80 - 4/11 - B-1049 Brussels - Fax: (32-2) 295 74 88.

(10)  Postmarked no later than 6 December 2005.

(11)  E-mail: EPSO-AD-..-05@cec.eu.int (insert the number of the competition chosen).

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ANNEX

REQUESTS FOR APPLICATIONS TO BE RECONSIDERED — APPEAL PROCEDURES — COMPLAINT TO THE EUROPEAN OMBUDSMAN

If, at any stage of the competition, you consider that your interests have been prejudiced by a particular decision, you can make one of the following:

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Corrigenda

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Corrigendum to notice of open competitions EPSO/AD/8-16/05 to constitute a reserve of linguistic administrators (A*9 — senior conference interpreters) for the following languages: Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Maltese, Polish, Slovene and Slovak

(Official Journal of the European Union C 117 A of 19 May 2005)

(2005/C 273 A/02)

On page 37, under heading B:

for:

read:

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