Assistants

EEAS: Redefining the Head of Administration role in EU Delegations: A call for clear responsibilities and support

*Update 17.01.2025 the rumoured  delegation closures are now also in the press.*

Original article: Generation 2004 EEAS section advocates for fair and realistic work conditions for colleagues in over 144 Delegations around the world. Those conditions must take account of the evolving responsibilities of all staff and roles. Among these, the Head of Administration (HoA) post in EU Delegations stands out as a unique role. Continue reading EEAS: Redefining the Head of Administration role in EU Delegations: A call for clear responsibilities and support

Certification: beware deadlines!

*Update 23.01.2025 check out the official announcement[1]: exams E1 and E3 will now be one exam: Certification Training Programme new model in a nutshell. Backwards compatibility is outlined there.

Update 13.01.2025, congratulations to the 98 colleagues whose name is on the draft list for the joint committee interviews! To those of you whose name is not there you have you have until Friday 17.01.2025 to appeal (5 working days from 10.01.2025). You have nothing to lose! Give it a go!*

Continue reading Certification: beware deadlines!

The first staff regulation reform: a new underclass (long read)

*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 20.12.2024, Here’s our Note to HR on European Court of Auditors Special report: European Court of Auditors, 2024, Special report 24/2024EU Civil service–A flexible employment framework, insufficiently used to improve workforce management* Continue reading The first staff regulation reform: a new underclass (long read)

ASTs: exploited and forgotten or given a future? 

*Update 21.11.2024 check out the European Court of Auditors, 2024, Special report 24/2024EU Civil service–A flexible employment framework, insufficiently used to improve workforce management: it concludes that ‘…the institutions do not focus on imbalances in the SC and AST function groups in their analysis, and concentrate instead on the AD group, and in particular the starting grades (AD5-AD8).‘ (P. 51) Check out their corresponding chart on p.51 showing the huge and unaddressed imbalances in AST and AST/SC function groups. Why on Earth choose to focus efforts on middle management, on part of a function group?[*] Where’s the global vision? Why tackle the hard stuff?* Continue reading ASTs: exploited and forgotten or given a future? 

Time to put an end to the career blockage of AST/SC staff

*Update 21.11.2024 check out the European Court of Auditors, 2024, Special report 24/2024EU Civil service – A flexible employment framework, insufficiently used to improve workforce management: it concludes that ‘…the institutions do not focus on imbalances in the SC and AST function groups in their analysis, and concentrate instead on the AD group, and in particular the starting grades (AD5-AD8).‘ (P. 51) Check out their corresponding chart on p.51. Why on Earth focus efforts on part of a function group?[*] Where’s the global vision? Why tackle the hard stuff?* Continue reading Time to put an end to the career blockage of AST/SC staff

Certification 2024/25: and so it begins!

*Update 20.12.2024, Here’s our Note to HR on European Court of Auditors Special report.pdf.*

Original Article: Apologies for the very short notice, we didn’t see any announcements and now the deadline is fast approaching.  The Certification exercise is open and the deadline for submitting your motivation letter is Monday 30 September at 23.59. Please don’t miss your chance to participate! Here is the published information. Don’t leave it to the last minute: the letter text is uploaded via sysper (similar to the way the self-assessment is done) and can sometimes take more than one attempt. Continue reading Certification 2024/25: and so it begins!

One step forward in our fight: internal competition for AST & AST/SC (+training offer)

*Update 23.05.2024, COM/AST3/2024 competition exam date will be June 5, 2024. Enrolment on COM AST3 training with follow up sessions are closed. Registration for the self-study option is still open.  *Update 02.05.2024 COM/AST3/2024 indicative planning has been updated, but still not precise enough to allow for holiday planning. Continue reading One step forward in our fight: internal competition for AST & AST/SC (+training offer)

More missing contributions for a pension transfer-in

While it is possible to take your pensions contributions from national systems and put them into the pension scheme of the European Union institutions (PSEUI), this is often a long-drawn-out process and it can be rather opaque. We recently highlighted the general exclusion of Member State ‘gifted’ contributions (e.g. covering times of military service or caring duties) from transfers-in and of a failed court case to try to recover the contributions where their inclusion made no difference. Now we cover a further potential complication which is delays in Member States doing their part in this process. Continue reading More missing contributions for a pension transfer-in

Certification resit options: let’s pool our information!

*Update 30.04.2024 resitters, you have until Friday 17.05.2024 noon (CEST) to register for the certification procedure. If you haven’t received the email, get in touch with them.* Original article: The deadline for making a decision on which exams to resit (or not) is Friday 26.01.2024. As ever, we’re all about making informed decisions. Several of you have got in touch to say that the answers you have received do not match the information in our article Certification resit options: energy efficiency? It is not clear to us whether there is a DG-specific reason for this or whether the answer itself has changed, leaving recipients to try to find whose information is most recent.

Continue reading Certification resit options: let’s pool our information!

Certification resit options: energy efficiency?

To those of you resitting any part of the Certification, please be aware that you can choose to do any or all of the outstanding exams: the choice is up to you (the deadline for making the choice is Friday 26.01.2024). This flexibility of choice is not particularly clear in the corresponding European School of Administration (EUSA) website. Continue reading Certification resit options: energy efficiency?