WRITTEN QUESTION E-3284/98

by Reinhard Rack (PPE) to the Commission

(9 November 1998)

Subject: The Commission's selection procedures

In connection with the Commission's latest selection procedure, during which irregularities occurred, the question of other forms of recruitment procedure at the Commission arises.

Of particular interest in this context are the simplified procedures for temporary staff that open the way for a career as an official at the Commission.

How many staff are/were employed by the Commission on temporary contracts:

(a) from 1990 to 1994

(b) from 1995 to 1998?

Can the Commission provide a breakdown of temporary staff in all categories (A, B, LA, etc.) by nationality?

How many temporary staff have been taken on as officials under the simplified recruitment procedure?

Are there other ways of becoming an official at the Commission? If so, is the information requested the same as in the simplified selection procedures for temporary staff?

Answer given by Mr Liikanen on behalf of the Commission

(21 December 1998)

The number of temporary staff paid from the administrative budget rose from 557 in 1990 to 748 by the end of the period 1990-1994. During the period 1995-1998, the number fell from 971 at the end of 1995 to the current figure of 824. The breakdown of temporary staff by nationality and by category, e.g. for the end of each of these two periods, has been sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat-General.

Temporary staff are recruited and selected according to the new, simplified system, which came into force on 1 December 1996 (Commission Decision of 13 November 1996(1)). Recruitments to posts at grades A4/5 and B3 are based on the criterion of specialisation. The three stages are: definition of the profiles for the vacant posts; the call for applications, which as a rule is restricted (list prepared by the Directorate-General concerned, contact with the Permanent Representations) though it may be general if required (direct contacts with the public sector in the Member States, advertisements in the specialised press); and selection interviews with a selection board, following which lists of successful candidates are produced. Candidates who have passed external open competitions are recruited to posts at the starting grades A7 and B5, unless specific skills are required, in which case the above procedure applies. This simplification is designed to speed up procedures for selecting temporary staff and to cut costs by avoiding the systemic publication of advertisements in the press, while at the same time ensuring rigour and transparency.

One way of becoming a permanent official at the Commission (since 1988) is to pass an internal competition for appointing temporary staff as officials. In its Decision of 13 November 1996, the Commission acknowledged that this was an alternative way of entering the institution as an official. Like external open competitions, the competition for appointing temporary staff as officials consists of a written and an oral test supervised by a selection board. In the above Decision, the Commission decided to end this competition system. The last internal reserve competition for the appointment of temporary staff to posts as officials will be held in 1999.

In all, from 1990 to 1994, 942 temporary staff paid from the administrative budget were appointed to posts as officials (an average of 188 per year), and from 1995-98 the figure was 614 (an average of 154 per year). The breakdown by nationality and by category for each of these two periods has been sent direct to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat-General.

(1) SEC(96) 1940 final.