Junior Professionals Programme

Internal Competitions 2025-2027: A Career Breakthrough or a Tactical Diversion? 

Certification, Equality, Internal Competitions, Junior Professionals Programme, Newsletter-2025-02-28, Professional mobility, Promotions, reclassification, Staff Categories, Working conditions Print This Post

*Update 26.08.2025 the updated time estimates are available under ‘planning’: please note some will take place SOONER than originally stated: don’t miss your chance!*

Original article: Opportunities Announced, But Do They Truly Deliver?  The European Commission has announced its internal competitions planning for 2025-2027, introducing more frequent competitions and cross-category mobility up to AD10. This appears to be a positive development at first glance, but a deeper analysis of eligibility criteria and staff demographics raises serious concerns about how inclusive and effective these competitions will be in addressing long-standing career progression issues.  Continue reading Internal Competitions 2025-2027: A Career Breakthrough or a Tactical Diversion?  →

Unlocking Career progression for Contract Agents: untapped potential of GIPS Article 13 

CA screening, Contract Agents, Equality, Internal Competitions, Junior Professionals Programme, Newsletter-2025-02-28, Promotions, reclassification, Staff Categories, Staff Regulations Reform, well-being, Working conditions Print This Post

What is GIPS Article 13 (CA screening) and who can benefit from it ?  Article 13 of the general implementing provisions (GIPs) for Article 79(2) of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants (CEOS) provides a pathway for Contract Agents engaged under article 3a of the CEOS [*] to advance to a higher function group (so-called CA screening), provided they meet certain conditions.  Continue reading Unlocking Career progression for Contract Agents: untapped potential of GIPS Article 13  →

Assistants (ASTs) FAQs

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*Update 23.09.2025: It’s now official: 50 AST/SCs are to have the (mis)fortune of doing an AST post without the corresponding AST promotion speed or career potential.  Check the Draft 2026 Commission budget: ’50 posts in the function group AST may be occupied by officials and temporary staff in the AST/SC function group to reflect the gradual phase-in of the AST/SC function group.’ (p. 955, footnote 1). While the Commission as a whole is set to lose 24 posts, the AST function group is to lose 121 (leaving 4398 permanent staff). No other function group is to decrease in size.*

*Update 26.08.2025 the updated internal competitions time estimates are available under ‘planning’: please note some will take place SOONER than originally stated: don’t miss your chance!*

Continue reading Assistants (ASTs) FAQs →

DG GROW: Reorganisation? Maladministration? Or how to pave the way for…what?

Internal Competitions, Junior Professionals Programme, New HR strategy, Newsletter - 2022-12-19, Social Dialogue Print This Post

Our institution as well as our working and private lives have, in the recent past, undergone substantial change. So much so that the word reorganisation stopped soliciting any surprise. We are used to it and it happens everywhere and at reasonably regular intervals, such as before the arrival of a new Commission or Cabinets: the outgoing one might look to perhaps reshuffle things in order to accommodate their loyal staff within the services of the Commission. Continue reading DG GROW: Reorganisation? Maladministration? Or how to pave the way for…what? →

Update on our collective action on internal competitions

Events, Internal Competitions, Junior Professionals Programme, New HR strategy, Newsletter - 2022-04-13, Professional mobility, Staff Categories Print This Post

We are in April and DG HR has not yet provided competition planning (provisional or otherwise). We do not think that this will change any time soon. Even if the planning was to become available now, the ongoing exclusion of certain staff categories (16 000 potentially eligible staff) from internal competitions requires action and the most recent example of this is the internal competition published at the end of the last year (COM/AD/02/21). Continue reading Update on our collective action on internal competitions →

Stated objectives: ‘pilot’ Junior Professionals Programme (JPP) (long read)

EPSO, Internal Competitions, Junior Professionals Programme, Newsletter - 2022-04-13 Print This Post

*Update 15.01.2025, Here’s our December note on the technical difficulties in application process in a call for expression of interest for the internal competition JPP14 (French and German as language 2).*

*Update 16.03.2023, we add the notes exchanged between HR and the Central Staff Committee (CSC/CCP) on making the JPP permanent (no longer ‘pilot’.[1]), in December 2022 it was confirmed that the programme will become permanent, with no response to the CSC concerns. Director HR.B Recruitment & Mobility promises to present figures on JPP6-10 in a later plenary e.g. geographical balance and Blue Book/Temporary Agent/Conctract Agent proportions.

10/10/2022
(2022)6989869		 Request for an opinion – Decision : Junior Professionals Programme + Annex CCP
31/10/2022

Continue reading Stated objectives: ‘pilot’ Junior Professionals Programme (JPP) (long read) →

Stop having AST/SC staff do AST roles without the corresponding pay and potential!

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*Update 23.09.2025: It’s now official: 50 AST/SCs are to have the (mis)fortune of doing an AST post without the corresponding AST promotion speed or career potential.  Check the Draft 2026 Commission budget: ’50 posts in the function group AST may be occupied by officials and temporary staff in the AST/SC function group to reflect the gradual phase-in of the AST/SC function group.’ (p. 955, footnote 1). While the Commission as a whole is set to lose 24 posts, the AST function group is to lose 121 (leaving 4398 permanent staff). No other function group is to decrease in size.* Continue reading Stop having AST/SC staff do AST roles without the corresponding pay and potential! →

Stated aims and reality: AST/SC

Junior Professionals Programme, Newsletter - 2020-07-01, Secretaries and clerks, Staff Regulations Reform Print This Post

*Update 23.09.2025: It’s now official: 50 AST/SCs are to have the (mis)fortune of doing an AST post without the corresponding AST promotion speed or career potential.  Check the Draft 2026 Commission budget: ’50 posts in the function group AST may be occupied by officials and temporary staff in the AST/SC function group to reflect the gradual phase-in of the AST/SC function group.’ (p. 955, footnote 1). While the Commission as a whole is set to lose 24 posts, the AST function group is to lose 121 (leaving 4398 permanent staff). No other function group is to decrease in size.* Continue reading Stated aims and reality: AST/SC →