WRITTEN QUESTION E-1270/00

by Alejandro Cercas (PSE), Miguel Martínez Martínez (PSE), Emilio Menéndez del Valle (PSE) and María Sornosa Martínez (PSE) to the Commission

(19 April 2000)

Subject: Internal competitions COM/TA/99, COM/TB/99 and COM/TC/99

On 2 December 1999 the Director-General of the Commission's Administration and Personnel department decided to reopen the above three competitions until 22 December 1999, although the deadline for applications laid down in the relevant notices of competition had expired at 4 p.m. on 30 July 1999, and to postpone to a later date the written tests that were due to take place on 6/7 December 1999.

1. Would the Commission:

- indicate why, disregarding the opinion of the selection boards, it decided to admit not only candidates who, in the words of its decision of 2 December 1999, had not submitted all the documents required in accordance with point XII of the notices of competition and thus had failed to comply with the rules laid down by the Commission itself for those competitions but also new candidates who were permitted to apply for the competitions in question between 2 and 22 December 1999, in other words long after the officially published deadline?

- provide the names and state the number of candidates, by competition category, who were permitted by the selection boards to take part in the competition after 2 December 1999?

- certify that the candidates whose applications were accepted after 2 December 1999 did not include any persons who were related to Members of the Commission or members of Commissioners' private offices?

- indicate the nature of the guarantees offered by the Administration to persuade the selection boards to resume their duties after having tendered their resignation?

2. Does the Commission agree:

- that as a result of the Administration's decision of 2 December 1999, which was merely forwarded by e-mail, the organisation of the current competitions for permanent posts is flawed by serious errors of form and substance and that this procedure is incomprehensible in terms of the policy of transparency to which the Commission has committed itself?

- that candidates who are incapable of filling in a complicated but precisely worded application form correctly are unsuitable to be employed as officials?

Answer given by Mr Kinnock on behalf of the Commission

(6 June 2000)

The Commission can inform the Honourable Member that only the jury members need to certify that they have no parental link with any of the candidates. The Commission does not request such information from the candidates themselves.

The Director General explained the reasons for his decision to the juries concerned as well as to the Joint Committee and agreed to re-examine the number of successful candidates for each competition. The juries thereafter resumed their work in January 2000.

Regarding the further questions the Honourable Members are referred to the replies already given to Written Questions E-216/00 by Mr Ferri(1), P-832/00 by Mr Turco(2) and oral question H-125/00 by Mr Turco during question time at Parliament's February 2000 part-session(3).

(1) OJ C 374 E, 28.12.2000, p. 37.

(2) OJ C 26 E, 26.1.2001, p. 116.

(3) Debates of the European Parliament (February 2000).