1.

2.

3.

3.1.

3.2.

3.3.

4.

4.1.

4.2.

4.3.

5.

6.

(a)

The European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) is organising open competitions, based on qualifications and tests, to draw up reserve lists from which the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘Court of Justice of the EU’), based in Luxembourg, may recruit new members of the civil service as ‘lawyer-linguists’ (grade AD 7).

(b)

This notice of competitions and its Annex ‘General rules’, form the legally binding framework for these competitions.

(c)

EPSO endeavours to use gender-neutral and inclusive language. Any reference to a person of a specific gender must be deemed also to constitute a reference to a person of any other gender.

(d)

This notice covers eight competitions. A candidate may only apply for one of them.

(e)

The number of successful candidates sought per competition is indicated in Table 1.

Table 1

(a)

The Court of Justice of the EU recruits highly qualified lawyers, who must be able to translate often complex legal texts into the language of the competition from at least two other languages. The work of a lawyer-linguist involves the use of standard IT and other office-technology tools.

(b)

The duties involve translating legal texts (judgments of the Court of Justice and the General Court, Opinions of the Advocates General, written pleadings of the parties, etc.) into the language of the competition from at least two other official EU languages, reviewing such translations, and providing legal analysis in cooperation with the Registries and the other departments of the Court of Justice of the EU.

1.

be a national of one of the Member States of the EU and enjoy full rights as a citizen;

2.

have fulfilled any obligations imposed on them by the laws concerning military service; and

3.

meet the character requirements for the duties concerned.

(a)

The eligibility requirements for these competitions are based on the interests of the service while taking into account the differences between the national legal systems in the EU.

(b)

The specific educational qualifications that are in principle required for each particular competition covered by this notice are listed in Sections 3.3.1–3.3.8.

(c)

For workers who have exercised their freedom of movement between Member States within the meaning of Article 45 TFEU, equivalence with these qualifications may also be accepted by the Selection Board, in the light of the principles laid down in the judgment of 7 September 2022, OQ v European Commission, T-713/20, ECLI:EU:T:2022:513.

(d)

To determine whether a candidate meets the specific educational qualifications, the Selection Board will take into account the rules in force at the time when the qualification was awarded.

(e)

In principle, no working experience is required. However, in cases where a candidate’s educational qualifications correspond to completed university studies of three years only, they should also have subsequently obtained legal experience of at least one year.

(f)

Experience referred to in point (e) above will be considered relevant if it is acquired in one or more of the following areas:

(g)

In cases where a diploma is sufficient to meet the eligibility requirements for a given competition (see Sections 3.3.1–3.3.8), such diploma must be awarded no later than 1 October 2025.

(i)

Vysokoškolské vzdělání v oblasti českého práva nebo české právní vědy (magistr, Mgr.) umožňující přístup k doktorskému studijnímu programu v oblasti českého práva nebo české právní vědy; nebo

(ii)

ukončený doktorský studijní program v oblasti českého práva nebo české právní vědy (doktor, Ph.D.); nebo

(iii)

úspěšně složená státní rigorózní zkouška v oblasti českého práva nebo české právní vědy (doktor práv, JUDr.).

(i)

Juridisk kandidateksamen (cand.jur.);

(ii)

Erhvervsøkonomisk-erhvervsjuridisk kandidateksamen (cand.merc.jur.).

(i)

Jur.kand.-examen, juristexamen, awarded in Sweden;

(ii)

Juris kandidat (JK), juris magister (JM), awarded in Finland as a result of having completed university-level studies in law, undertaken in the Swedish language.

—

application (see Section 4.3.1),

—

testing (see Section 4.3.2),

—

test scoring and eligibility check (see Section 4.3.3),

—

establishment of the reserve lists (see Section 4.3.4).

(a)

The Staff Regulations (1) stipulate that an official may only be appointed on condition that they produce evidence of a thorough knowledge of one of the EU languages and a satisfactory knowledge of another EU language to the extent necessary for the performance of their duties.

(b)

The lawyer-linguists at the Court of Justice of the EU need to be able to translate legal texts into language 1 from at least two source languages. Therefore, candidates must have knowledge of at least three different official EU languages out of those indicated in Table 2. For ease of reference, those languages will be referred to as ‘language 1’, ‘language 2’, and ‘language 3’.

Table 2

(c)

Required knowledge levels in each linguistic ability requested in the application form (listening, reading, spoken interaction, spoken production, writing) are the following:

(d)

These levels and abilities reflect those of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (2).

(e)

The Court of Justice of the EU is a multilingual institution and the language rules under which it operates are defined in the rules of procedure.

(f)

The translations at the Court of Justice of the EU are organised in a mixed system using both direct translation and translation via a certain number of pivot languages. Direct translation is preferred whenever possible, but if no means are available, a pivot language can be used instead. Currently, such pivot languages are German, English, Italian, Polish and Spanish. What is more, the French language, being the language for deliberations, requires its translation unit to be able to provide direct translations from all the official languages of the European Union. French is therefore a natural pivot language.

(g)

The language options indicated in Table 2 are based on the above considerations as well as on real current and anticipated recruitment needs in the relevant language units.

(h)

Language 1 of each competition corresponds to the target language of the translation unit concerned. A native-speaker level of language 1 is required for lawyer-linguists, because they will have to translate complex legal texts into this language. Also, candidates must demonstrate that, on the basis of a native-speaker proficiency in language 1, they will be able to carry out the legal and terminological analysis of references for a preliminary ruling submitted by national courts in that language, and related tasks.

(i)

The decision to designate French as language 2 in competitions other than EPSO/AD/424/25 – FR reflects the fact that the majority of texts are to be translated from French, particularly judgments and orders of the Court of Justice and the General Court. In order to ensure that the case-law can be published in all the official EU languages, it is essential that each lawyer-linguist in each of the translation units concerned can work from French.

(j)

Language 2 in competition EPSO/AD/424/25 – FR needs to be chosen among Dutch, English, German, Greek, Italian, Polish and Spanish to meet the linguistic coverage requirements of the French translation unit. Specifically, this unit requires lawyer-linguists capable of translating complex legal texts from one of the specified languages, as a significant portion of translations is conducted from these languages.

(k)

Language 3 in competitions other than EPSO/AD/424/25 – FR and EPSO/AD/424/25 – IT (i.e. competitions for Danish-, Estonian-, Finnish-, Latvian-, Swedish- and Czech-language lawyer-linguists) needs to be chosen among English, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish due to the fact that the vast majority of texts to be translated from a language other than language 2 (French) are processed through pivot languages (German, English, Italian, Polish and Spanish).

(l)

Language 3 in competition EPSO/AD/424/25 – IT needs to be chosen among English, German, Greek, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian, and Spanish due to the fact that the vast majority of texts to be translated from a language other than language 2 (French) are processed through pivot languages other than Italian, namely German, English, Polish and Spanish. Additionally, the Italian translation unit, as a ‘pivot unit’ for Greek, Romanian and Slovenian languages, must ensure adequate coverage for these languages.

(m)

These language requirements determine the languages of tests (see Section 4.2.2).

(a)

The languages will be used in different phases of the competitions as indicated in Table 3.

Table 3

(b)

Owing to the specific constraints on lawyer-linguists’ work at the Court of Justice of the EU as outlined in the previous section, it is appropriate to require candidates to take the reasoning tests in their language 1.

(c)

The translation test and the translation review test will require candidates to demonstrate ability to use languages 1, 2, and 3, corresponding to the languages they will use in their day-to-day work. This offers the best guarantee that the candidates recruited will be of the highest standard in terms of ability and efficiency and will be operational upon recruitment.

(a)

To apply, a candidate needs to have a candidate account.

(b)

The candidates must apply online on the EPSO website  (3) and submit their applications by

28 May 2025 at 12:00 (midday), Luxembourg time.

(c)

By submitting their application form, candidates declare that they meet all the conditions mentioned under Section 3 ‘Am I eligible?’. It is the candidates’ responsibility to ensure that they complete and submit their application within the deadline. Once the application deadline has passed, candidates will no longer be able to make any changes to their application.

(d)

By 7 October 2025 at 12:00 (midday), Luxembourg time, candidates will have to provide the scanned copies of the documents supporting the declarations made in their application form. An explanation on how to do this is available on the dedicated competition page on the EPSO website.

(i)

All candidates who have submitted their application form by the deadline indicated in point 4.3.1(b) will be invited to sit a series of tests defined below. Please note that the order in which the tests are organised may differ from the order in which they are listed in this notice.

(ii)

The tests will be held and proctored (invigilated) remotely. EPSO will inform candidates about the testing modalities at the latest when inviting them to the tests.

(iii)

If a candidate fails to sit or complete one or more of the tests, as specified in this notice and/or in the instructions provided to the candidates, their participation in the competition will come to an end (see Section 5 of the general rules).

(i)

The test scores will be used as indicated in Table 7.

Table 7

(ii)

Candidates who fail to sit or complete all the tests (see Section 4.3.2 above and Section 5 of the general rules) will not have any of their test answers and/or scripts processed and will not have their eligibility checked.

(iii)

Should a candidate fail to obtain at least the required pass score(s) in one of the tests, their participation in the competition will come to an end. Such candidates will not have their test answers and/or scripts processed any further and will not have their eligibility checked.

(iv)

Test results will only be notified to candidates at the end of the competition (see point 4.3.4(d)), irrespective of the step in the competition the candidate reached.

(i)

The reasoning tests will be scored first. Candidates who obtained at least the required pass score in the reasoning tests will have their eligibility checked.

(ii)

The eligibility check involves verifying compliance with the eligibility conditions set out in Section 3 ‘Am I eligible?’. The Selection Board will take the decision on a candidate’s eligibility by comparing (a) the declarations made in the application form; and (b) the documents duly provided by the candidates in accordance with Section 2.4, points (1)-(3), of the general rules to support those declarations.

(iii)

Candidates deemed eligible will have the translation test scored.

(iv)

Candidates who obtained at least the required pass score in the translation test will have their translation review test scored.

(v)

Candidates who obtain at least the required pass scores in both tests will have both scores added together to constitute the combined overall score, out of 160. Here, ‘160’ represents the sum of the highest possible scores in the translation test (80) and in the translation review test (80).

(vi)

Candidates will then be ranked –within each competition – in the descending order of their combined overall scores. This ranking per competition will serve as the basis for the establishment of the reserve list for each respective competition.

(a)

The Selection Board will include in the reserve lists the names of the candidates who (i) have obtained at least all the required pass scores and one of the highest combined overall scores; and (ii) were found to be eligible. This will be performed in the descending order of the ranking referred to in point 4.3.3(b)(vi) until the number of successful candidates sought for each respective competition is reached or until the pool of candidates included in the ranking is depleted.

(b)

All candidates who tie for the last available place in a reserve list will be added to that reserve list.

(c)

Names in the reserve lists will be listed alphabetically. The reserve lists will be made available to the recruiting services.

(d)

The candidates will be notified of their results (test results and eligibility-check results) unless their test answers and/or scripts have not been processed and/or eligibility has not been checked for the reasons indicated in this notice.

(e)

Inclusion on a reserve list does not confer any right to or guarantee of recruitment.

(a)

EPSO endeavours to apply an equal opportunities policy to all candidates.

(b)

Candidates who have a disability or a medical condition that may affect their ability to take the tests, should indicate this in their application form and follow the procedure to request reasonable accommodations as described on the EPSO website (4). Having examined the candidates’ request as well as the relevant supporting documents, EPSO may grant reasonable accommodations where deemed necessary.

(a)

Successful candidates on reserve lists will be recruited as probationer officials to posts based in Luxembourg.

(b)

Article 29(1)(a)(i) and (b) of the Staff Regulations provide that, at any time in their career, officials may apply for a transfer within the same Union institution or agency or to another Union institution or agency.

(c)

However, candidates should note that, in the interests of the service:

(d)

It should also be noted that any such transfer between institutions or agencies will be conditional upon the agreement of the official’s original institution or agency and the institution or agency to which they wish to transfer.

(e)

In order to be able to perform their duties under the best possible conditions, newly recruited officials must be given the opportunity to integrate as effectively as possible into the culture and working environment of the place of employment and the institution or agency that recruits them.

(f)

Moreover, recruiting institutions or agencies invest resources in induction and training for new officials and in helping them to integrate both at work and in the place of employment. It is thus necessary to ensure a certain degree of continuity and predictability in the filling of posts by requiring newly recruited officials to complete a minimum period of service both in the recruiting institution or agency and in their place of employment.