On behalf of our institution, R&D sincerely apologizes to the 42,000 candidates registered in this database who have not been informed about the recruitment “procedures” that have been organized and require reassurances about their transparency!
The scandalous management of internal competitions and the parachuting by members of cabinets of the Barroso Commission – surpassing the worst behaviour of previous Colleges – seems not to have been sufficient to undermine the fundamentals of the recruitment and appointment procédures!
Last year the Commission felt the need to pull out of its hat a “call for expressions of interest” for the recruitment of Contractual Agents.
R&D had at the time denounced the totally unacceptable nature of this approach and the application of a new founding principle i.e. the “Royal Decree”!
R&D recalled that since 2006, thanks to the political determination of Vice-President Kallas, the establishment of open and anonymous tests (CAST) for the recruitment of CA was a basic principle that seemed to be acquired and for which we should rejoice.
However, an approach amongst the worst practices of the past that we had thought permanently buried has now resurfaced!
Information available, as well as complaints and requests for assistance sent to us by both the services and the candidates demonstrate that our worst fears have unfortunately been proven justified!
Indeed, candidates have been subjected to a “process” that is difficult to describe as a real administrative procedure: enrolled in a database after introduction of their CV, they must wait patiently that someone, somewhere, in the absence of any procedure, any coordination from DG HR and any involvement of the staff representatives, choose and select from tens of thousands of other applicants inviting them to an interview!
As R&D had foreseen, under these conditions, candidates have been forced to mutate into “lobbyists” constantly addressing the DGs by transmitting their CVs to all possible email addresses, using their personal contacts, friends of friends, etc., to have any chance of being selected. An opaque and discriminatory approach, opening the door to all excesses, offering no guarantee to candidates and exposing services to a multitude of criticisms and dangers!
It was hard to do worse!
In this period of crisis of the legitimacy and credibility of the European Project, with our public service being the subject of vicious attacks, could our institution have presented a worse visiting card to tens of thousands of candidates who have the ambition to be recruited?
The worst aspect of this scandalous management is the “explanations” given to try to justify it!
The Commission justifies itself by blaming EPSO for not having organized a CAST in the proper manner!
Indeed, the Commission claims that the launch of this call for expression arises from the inability of EPSO to provide the services with lists from a new CAST, since existing lists are practically unusable.
The Commission pretends to forget that the principle of open and anonymous selection procedures has been acquired since 2006 and that the obligation to organize new EPSO CAST was formally confirmed by the GIP, negotiated and adopted by the College in 2011!
In an institution like ours, which suffocates under the weight of planning, inspections, audits, evaluations, …. with an EPSO board which meets every month and where the Commission is well represented , it is simply inconceivable to imagine that it was not possible to promptly manage service requests and organize selection procedures in the proper manner.
And while the Commission confirms its commitment to the basic recruitment principles and laments that EPSO failures forced it to organize this “procedure”, EPSO strongly contests the justifications advanced by the Commission.
Under these conditions, R&D has asked for the insertion in the upcoming organized CBT tests the following multiple choice question: “Who is responsible for this disaster?”
While waiting to know the answer and to indicate dates for the organization of future CASTs, EPSO continues to dedicate its time to posturing in the Member States (and even outside …) trying to convert national administrations, encouraging them to abandon the darkness of less transparent recruitment procedures!
We are sure that in this gospel preaching, the EU-CV database is a high point of each EPSO sermon… to explain concretely what is a “worst practice” and what a public administration should never do to earn the respect of its fellow citizens and its taxpayers!