WRITTEN QUESTION E-1794/99

by Michiel van Hulten (PSE) to the Commission

(11 October 1999)

Subject: Article in HP De Tijd of 27 August 1999 concerning the Commission's traineeship programme

1. Is the Commission aware of the article entitled Dad, I've learnt how to lobby, which appeared in the Dutch weekly HP De Tijd on 27 August 1999 concerning the Commission's traineeship programme?

2. Is there any truth in the claim made by Ms Dabertrand, a former trainee on the programme, that trainees in the Commission's Secretariat-General are allowed to take decisions on applications for small grants of up to 50 000? If so, what do such applications relate to, and how many applications per year are involved?

3. Is there any truth in Ms Dabertrand's claim that applications for grants are automatically rejected if applicants supply too much information or write outside the spaces provided, or if they are not written in the applicant's own language? If so, which applications have been treated in this way? Are the applicants aware that their applications have been rejected for reasons that have to do with formalities?

4. It also appears from the article that the selection procedure does not include testing of the knowledge of languages trainees have indicated on their CVs. It also appears that trainees are placed in the various Commission departments mainly on the basis of passport photographs. Does the Commission intend to alter the trainee selection procedure so that it is based solely on proven abilities and is not based on passport photographs?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(10 November 1999)

1. The Commission is grateful to the Honourable Member for drawing its attention to the article in HP De Tijd. The Commission very much regrets that a number of its officials and trainees have been wilfully misquoted and misrepresented by this article. Several of the trainees mentioned in the article have indicated to the Commission their intention to protest in the strongest possible terms to the weekly in question since the remarks and actions attributed to them are in most cases pure fiction.

2. Ms Dabertrand has subsequently been interviewed by her former head of unit. The claim attributed to her but which she strenuously denies having made, that trainees in the Commission's Secretariat General are allowed to take decisions on applications for small grants of up to 50 000 is entirely untrue. No trainee has ever been involved in any stage of the procedure for selecting grant applications.

3. It is completely untrue that applications for grants are automatically rejected if applicants supply too much information, write outside the spaces provided, or if they are not written in the applicant's own language. Ms Dabertrand also denies having been the source of the misinformation.

4. With regard to the recruitment of its trainees, the Commission operates a rigorous and systematic procedure for checking candidates' applications. Applicants are selected on the basis of their academic qualifications, any relevant experience and their linguistic skills. Every application is examined by preselection groups for each nationality made up of experienced Commission officials of that nationality. One of the many inaccuracies in the article relates to the candidates providing photographs during the selection procedure. Candidates do not have to provide a photograph of themselves at any stage during the recruitment process.