EU Considers Reforming or Scrapping Its Civil Service Exam Board

BRUSSELS — The European Commission is considering major changes to its civil service exam board amid a budget squeeze and growing criticism — including possibly scrapping it, two EU officials told POLITICO Brussels Playbook.

The European Personnel Selection Office, created in 2002, is the gateway for EU civil servants and designed to pick the best and brightest from thousands of applicants. But it’s under increasing scrutiny amid high-profile failures and the fact that the EU has fewer jobs to offer due to pressure on its long-term budget.

One scenario is simply to “get rid of EPSO,” said an EU official involved in the thinking about reforms, granted anonymity to speak about the plans. The last open hiring round — which drew a record 174,922 applicants — proved “completely unmanageable,” the official said, adding that “the cost of administering this sort of mass exam is out of proportion to what we get out of it.”

The current model is “reaching its limits,” said a second EU official, lamenting that hiring currently takes between two and three years. “You will see quite far-reaching ideas on how the system could be changed.”

A spokesperson for the European Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The plans follow a string of high-profile failures, including one last year that forced nearly 10,000 aspiring EU civil servants to retake an exam after a technical blunder voided their results.

Cristiano Sebastiani, who represents the Renouveau et Démocratie EU staff union, said the exam board isn’t delivering on its aim to boost hiring from underrepresented geographies and among younger applicants — but it should evolve, rather than be abandoned.

“There is a role where it provides expertise to different services for their recruitment. But abolishing it entirely would be the wrong message to EU citizens,” he said.