Rapport: selectieprocedure voor personeel EU duurt te lang (en) - Hoofdinhoud

EUROPEAN COURT OF AUDITORS PRESS RELEASE

ECA/09/44

Luxembourg, 2009/07/16

Special Report on the efficiency and effectiveness of the personnel selection activities carried out by EPSO ¹

On the evidence of its audit, the European Court of Auditors concludes that the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO), set up in 2002, has successfully managed the increase, due to enlargement, in the number of open competitions to select staff for the EU institutions .

However, the duration of the personnel selection process was too long, the average duration of the competitions examined by the Court being 16 months from the deadline for registration until the publication of the reserve lists of laureates (successful candidates). The main reason for the delays was the time needed for marking the written tests and performing the oral testing of candidates.

Furthermore, competitions only produced on average two-thirds of the targeted number of laureates. This resulted from withdrawals caused by the long duration of the process; undue emphasis on specific language requirements; unclear communication of competitions; and pre-selection tests which eliminated more candidates than necessary.

After the start of the Court’s audit, EPSO’s management designed the EPSO Development Programme (EDP) which aims to reduce the duration of competitions and to increase their yield. Taking into account the major change planned for 2010 in the organisation of selection procedures through the EDP, the Court recommends that:

The Institutions should provide EPSO with sufficiently timely and reliable information concerning their staffing needs and second to EPSO a sufficient number of officials to constitute professionalised selection boards. EPSO should improve the quality of competition notices; ensure an appropriate number of suitable candidates at all stages of the selection process; place more importance on professional rather than language skills; and take steps to improve geographical balance amongst laureates. Finally, EPSO should improve its management information; in particular, it should ensure that the new database for managing competitions is designed to produce reliable, useful and timely information.

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The purpose of this press release is to give a summary of the Special Report adopted by the Court of Auditors which is available on the Court’s Internet site ( www.eca.europa.eu ) and will be published shortly in a printed format.

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