*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.*
Original article: Generation 2004 wrote to HR (22.12.2023) for clarification regarding the ongoing internal competition for AD5, COM/AD5/2023. It looked like the candidates had already done the multiple choice questions (MCQ) test (13.12.2023) while the selection board had not yet been finalised (applications ran until 22.12.2023). HR have since clarified that, since the call for applications for selection-board members was not specific to this competition (5 competitions are mentioned there), a selection board was indeed in place before the COM/AD5/2023 MCQ took place.
Why is this timeline important?
According to the notice of competition starting any type of testing before having a selection board in place should not be possible since the the selection board must first:
• verify fulfilment of the general and specific requirements;
• decide on the difficulty of the competition tests and
• approve the content of said tests.
Against this backdrop, we asked the following questions:
1. When was the Selection Board for this competition established?
2. Who were the members of the Selection Board that verified fulfilment of the general and specific requirements and on which date was this fulfilment verified?
3. Who were the members of the Selection Board that decided on the difficulty of the competition test and on which date was this decision taken?
4. How can it be assured that colleagues who join the Selection Board after the MCQ tests of 13 December do not skew the assessment criteria for this competition? These “new” colleagues were not involved at all in the previous decision process and might have a different view on the assessment of the selection criteria and the difficulties of the tests.
5. How are candidates supposed to avoid contacting members of the Selection Board about the competition, when they have no way of knowing who the members are? In the same vein, how are candidates supposed to declare a conflict of interest with members of the Selection Panel, when they do not know who the members of the Selection Board are?
As always, we would love to hear from you. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us or leave a comment below.
If you appreciate our work, please consider becoming a member of Generation 2004.
