Staff Categories

Prioritize internal Local Agents recruitment in EU Delegations

As noticed by many colleagues in Delegations, the recruitment procedures for vacant posts for Local Agents are advertised internally and externally at the same time.  One cannot avoid asking:  Why would management search by default for candidates externally, instead of first providing a path of career growth to its existing talent?

We believe that unless a Delegation is extremely small, there is always the possibility to fill the post by internal candidates. Continue reading Prioritize internal Local Agents recruitment in EU Delegations

Contract Agents are frustrated! Here is why!

EPSO CAST vs. CAST PERMANENT 

One of the reasons for frustration of Contract Agents (CA) happens even before they are hired (i.e., during the recruitment phase). 

The CAST PERMANENT is a selection tool that was introduced in 2017. Permanent means that there is no deadline, so candidates can submit applications at any time.  Continue reading Contract Agents are frustrated! Here is why!

Internal competitions – fast careers… for some

*Update 19.02.2025: ‘By default, all [internal] competitions will be cross-category.’ (Stay tuned: A new approach for internal competitions) This is excellent news and should now put the Commission on an even footing with the Parliament and other EU institutions. We hope that this inclusion is genuine and that the competitions are not  otherwise skewed to reduce participation.* Continue reading Internal competitions – fast careers… for some

Update on our collective action on internal competitions

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

Home leave Decision 2022: an improvement for some staff

The new home leave decision 2022[1] will provide more days of leave to official, temporary agent and contract agent colleagues who are employed 2001km or more away from their official place of origin[2].  Generation 2004 thinks that this decision will have a far from solid impact on the general purpose of having a good work-life balance and the time to connect with friends and family, not to forget all the inevitable administrative work one needs to do when back in the home country. Continue reading Home leave Decision 2022: an improvement for some staff

Generation 2004 requests assistance be provided to Kyiv Delegation colleagues

Upon request, teleworking in Ukraine and abroad has been made available also for local agents by the latest Admin decision (2022)20.  For the time being this arrangement will be for 3 months, we will closely monitor the situation and the requests for extensions where applicable and necessary.

Since the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (24.02.2022) Generation2004 has actively been in touch with local agents and we are aware that all expat colleagues have been successfully evacuated to locations outside the country.  For local agents, Generation 2004 requested the following: Continue reading Generation 2004 requests assistance be provided to Kyiv Delegation colleagues

Rule of law – We demand the EEAS talk the talk and walk the walk

*Update 29.09.2022 Local Agents in Turkey are now being paid in euro, thank you all for your support!* Generation2004 stands in solidarity with local agent colleagues in Turkey. We expresses our extreme concern on continued EU non-compliance with the 2021 court ruling concerning the payment of local agents there. The European External Action Service (EEAS), specifically the Delegation of the European Union to Turkey, has again been told that its unilateral insistence on paying local staff Turkish lira (TRY) and not in Euro is a violation of the rules (Republic of Turkey,  Court of Cassation, 9th Civil Chamber Case No:2021/5672 Order No:2021/11022). Continue reading Rule of law – We demand the EEAS talk the talk and walk the walk

Launch of the evaluation process for EEAS local agents

It is now the turn of our European External Action Service (EEAS) local agent colleagues to have their annual evaluation. We’re here for you! See the recommendations in our  presentation (from slide 8 onwards) for how to write your evaluation text and our article on the corresponding dialogue to get an idea of what to highlight and how. As usual, we offer one-on-one sessions to help colleagues by reviewing their self-assessments. Continue reading Launch of the evaluation process for EEAS local agents

Please support colleagues in Kyiv, Ukraine

*Please sign to support our note on action to take for our Kyiv colleagues* The war  on Ukraine by the Russian Federation, which started on Thursday 24 February, will have a dramatic impact on the lives of our colleagues employed in Ukraine. We know that the EEAS formed a crisis-management working group for the emergency evacuation from Kabul in 2021. Generation 2004 would like to enquire whether similar arrangements have been put in place in Ukraine, if not, we strongly recommend to do it. Continue reading Please support colleagues in Kyiv, Ukraine