Blue Book trainees do a 5-month paid traineeship. Here is the eligibility criteria [1]: have completed a standard 3-year higher education degree … have no prior work experience of any kind, in excess of 6 weeks in any EU institution, body or agency, delegation, with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), or Advocates General at the Court of Justice of the European Union (EUCJ) have a very good knowledge of languages.’
Many go on to participate in the ‘pilot’ Junior Professional Programme (JPP [2]).
‘Blue Book trainees represent 91% of the JPP eligible applicants and 79% of selected junior professionals (JPs). Contract Agents (CAs) function group IV represent 8% of the eligible candidates and 21% of selected JPs’ (p.9, JPP Evaluation Report [3])
toolTips('.classtoolTips23','Contract Agents (CAs) were created by the 2004 staff regulations Reform. There are two types of CA: those with unlimited contracts, 3A [4] (‘indefinite’) and those with time-limited contracts [5], 3B [6]. CAs can belong to 4 different function groups (\'GF\') with different responsibilities and salaries [7].
As the use of contract staff becomes increasingly common, there has been a corresponding increase in the diversity of status and pay of the Commission’s workforce. For example, GFIV contract staff meeting the same minimum recruitment requirements (education and experience) as junior administrators may earn 28 % less. (European Court of Auditors, 2019, Special report no 15/2019 [8]: Implementation of the 2014 staff reform package at the Commission – Big savings but not without consequences for staff, point 61, page 34)
We have a working group dedicated to the dossier, and in December 2012 we addressed the first of many letters (\'notes\') about Contract Agents to Human Resources of all Institutions and agencies [9] (here is the cover e-mail [10]).
As a background you can see the report of the Commission to the Council regarding the recruitment of the contract agents in 2010 [11] (in French, COM(2011)802 final 23.11.2011).
Our articles on Contract Agents [12]
'); toolTips('.classtoolTips36','Blue Book trainees do a 5-month paid traineeship. Here is the eligibility criteria [1]: have completed a standard 3-year higher education degree … have no prior work experience of any kind, in excess of 6 weeks in any EU institution, body or agency, delegation, with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), or Advocates General at the Court of Justice of the European Union (EUCJ) have a very good knowledge of languages.’
Many go on to participate in the \'pilot\' Junior Professional Programme (JPP [2]).
‘Blue Book trainees represent 91% of the JPP eligible applicants and 79% of selected junior professionals (JPs). Contract agents (CAs) function group IV represent 8% of the eligible candidates and 21% of selected JPs’ (p.9, JPP Evaluation Report [3])
');