Fifteen of the EU’s 27 nationalities are under-represented among the Commission’s entry-level administrators, and new recruitment rules want to fix that. Watch the video!
“Fair” does not mean equal. The Commission measures each nationality against a “guiding rate”, 80% based on its share of European Parliament seats and 20% on its share of the EU population, giving smaller countries more weight.
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A country is under-represented when it falls below 80% of that rate. According to the Commission, 15 of 27 nationalities are under-represented at grades AD5 to AD8, the usual entry levels for administrators.
Candidates are often lost at the start. In EPSO administrator competitions between 2015 and 2021, Swedes made up 0.8% of participants compared to 2.3% of the EU population, yet their 1.6% pass rate was slightly above the 1.5% EU average. Reasons include complex selection procedures, good jobs at home, reluctance to relocate and low awareness of EU careers.
Since 2023, Joint Action Plans have offered outreach, application guidance and test coaching but not quotas. EPSO only creates pools of qualified candidates; the Commission decides who is hired.
Rules adopted last November allow it to interview at least one suitable candidate from an under-represented country per post and set nationality-based targets. Posts cannot be reserved, and standards cannot be lowered. Whether results have improved remains unclear.