C/2024/02265

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Notice amending the notice of open competition – EPSO/AD/411/23 – Administrators (AD 7) in the following fields: 1. Nuclear safeguards inspectors 2. Policy officers in the area of nuclear energy (OJ C, C/2023/149, 19.10.2023)

OJ C, C/2024/2265, 22.3.2024, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/2265/oj (BG, ES, CS, DA, DE, ET, EL, EN, FR, GA, HR, IT, LV, LT, HU, MT, NL, PL, PT, RO, SK, SL, FI, SV)

ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/2265/oj

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Official Journal
of the European Union

Series C

C/2024/2265

22.3.2024

Notice amending the notice of open competition – EPSO/AD/411/23 – Administrators (AD 7) in the following fields: 1. Nuclear safeguards inspectors 2. Policy officers in the area of nuclear energy

(Official Journal of the European Union C, C/2023/149, 19 October 2023)

(C/2024/2265)

Starting from 2024, EPSO will further enhance its commitment to multilingualism and will carry out open competitions under a full ‘24-language regime’. This means that candidates will have the flexibility to choose freely any two of the 24 official EU languages for taking the tests, according to the instructions provided in a particular notice of competition.

This change in approach facilitates candidates’ participation in open competitions and ensures the absence of any difference of treatment based on language, in accordance with the case-law of the Union courts (1). It is therefore opportune to implement it not only in the forthcoming competitions, but also in those competitions for which notices have already been issued but testing has not yet taken place, such as competition EPSO/AD/411/23.

The transition to the full ‘24-language regime’ in competition EPSO/AD/411/23 requires an adjustment to the test portfolio. In particular, in this context the deployment of the case study causes practical difficulties. It is therefore appropriate to replace it by a written test where the assignment is based on materials/documents already publicly available in 24 languages. The assessment will focus on written communication skills. The remaining modalities — scoring and duration — will be retained and are further clarified in the amending notice.

The remaining modifications outlined in the amending notice pertain to the testing procedures. In late 2023, EPSO announced its decision to suspend the test delivery of open competitions for technical reasons. This also affected competition EPSO/AD/411/23. EPSO is looking into options for a resilient test delivery system that will maintain integrity whilst ensuring an optimal user experience. Once the test delivery modalities for competition EPSO/AD/411/23 are confirmed, the candidates will be individually notified by EPSO.

To allow both current and potential new candidates to make the most of the flexibility provided by the full ‘24-language regime’ and potentially to choose other languages for tests, the competition is reopened. Consequently, candidates who have already submitted their application must review and revalidate their application in order to continue taking part in this competition. Further information will be provided to such candidates individually, via their EPSO accounts.

For the reasons outlined above, the notice of open competition EPSO/AD/411/23 shall be amended as follows:

(1)	on page 1, the deadline for application should read: ‘ Deadline for application: 23 April 2024 at 12:00 (midday), Brussels time ’;

(2)

on page 5, Section 4 ‘How will the competition be organised?’ should read:

‘4. HOW WILL THE COMPETITION BE ORGANISED?

4.1. Overview of the competition procedures

This competition will be organised in the following phases:

—	Application (see Section 4.3.1).

—	Testing: reasoning tests, a multiple-choice question test related to the field chosen by the candidate (“field-related MCQ test”), and a written test (see Section 4.3.2).

—	Scoring of the written test and eligibility check (see Section 4.3.3).

—	Establishment of the reserve lists (see Section 4.3.4).

4.2. Languages used in this competition

The Staff Regulations (2) stipulate that an official may only be appointed on condition that they produce evidence of a thorough knowledge of one of the languages of the EU and a satisfactory knowledge of another language of the EU to the extent necessary for the performance of their duties.

Therefore, in this competition, a candidate must have a thorough knowledge (minimum C1 level) of at least one of the 24 official EU languages and a satisfactory knowledge (minimum B2 level) of a different language to be chosen among the remaining 23 official EU languages. The minimum levels indicated here apply to each linguistic ability (speaking, writing, reading and listening) requested in the application form. These abilities reflect those of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (3).

For ease of reference, those languages will be referred to as “language 1” and “language 2”.

Languages will be used in different phases of the competition as follows:

Competition phase	Tests	Language
Application	—	Any of the 24 official EU languages
Testing	Reasoning tests	Language 1
	Field-related MCQ test	Language 2
	Written test	Language 2

Candidates will have to indicate their choice of test languages in their application form and will not be able to change it after validating their application.

4.3. Competition phases

4.3.1. Application

(a)

To apply, a candidate needs to have an EPSO account. Candidates who do not yet have an EPSO account, will need to create one. Only one account may be created for all of a candidate’s EPSO applications.

The candidates must apply online on the EPSO website by (4)

23 April 2024 at 12:00 (midday), Brussels time.

(b)

By validating their application form, candidates declare that they meet all the conditions mentioned under Section “Am I eligible?”. Once the candidates have validated their application form, they will no longer be able to make any changes. It is the candidates’ responsibility to ensure that they complete and validate their application within the deadline.

(c)

Candidates who have already submitted their applications for this competition by the deadline indicated in the original notice of competition published in the Official Journal of the European Union C, C/2023/149 on 19 October 2023, or by the extended deadline indicated in the notice amending the notice of the present competition, published in the Official Journal of the European Union C, C/2023/1343 on 30 November 2023 , (hereinafter, “existing candidates”) will have their application reopened by EPSO.

(d)	Existing candidates must revisit and validate their applications once again, before the deadline referred to in point (a) of this subsection. This action is mandatory in order to remain candidate in this competition.

(e)	In addition to reviewing their test language choices, candidates have the possibility to make any other changes to their application form, for example, update their academic record or the duration of their current professional experience.

(f)

By 18 June 2024 at 12:00 (midday), Brussels time, candidates will have to upload to their EPSO account (and link to their application) 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 EPSO website (5).

(g)	Existing candidates who have already uploaded their supporting documents and linked them to their application form will not have to reupload/relink those documents. They may, however, decide to add/link additional documents by the deadline indicated in point (f) of this subsection.

4.3.2. Testing

All candidates who have duly validated their application form by the deadline indicated in point (a) of Section 4.3.1 of this notice and following instructions outlined in Section 4.3.1 will be invited to sit a series of tests.

EPSO will inform candidates about the testing modalities at the latest when inviting them to the tests.

(a) Reasoning tests

The tests of the candidates’ reasoning abilities will be organised as follows:

Test	Language	No of questions	Duration	Pass score
Verbal reasoning	Language 1	20 questions	35 min	10/20
Numerical reasoning		10 questions	20 min	Numerical and abstract reasoning combined: 10/20
Abstract reasoning		10 questions	10 min	Numerical and abstract reasoning combined: 10/20

A candidate needs at least to reach both a pass score of 10/20 in the verbal reasoning test and a combined pass score of 10/20 in the numerical and abstract reasoning tests.

Candidates who do not reach the required pass scores in the reasoning tests will not have the results of their field-related MCQ test processed.

(b) Field-related MCQ test

The field-related MCQ test will be specific to the field chosen by the candidate. It will be organised as follows:

Test	Language	No of questions	Duration	Scoring	Pass score
Field-related MCQ test	Language 2	30	40 minutes	0 to 30	15/30

A candidate needs to reach a pass score of 15/30 and to be amongst the candidates who score the highest.

Candidates who reach the pass score will be ranked in the descending order of the scores obtained. This ranking will be used (i) to determine the candidates who will have their written test scored and their eligibility checked (see Section 4.3.3 below); and (ii) for the purpose of establishment of the reserve lists according to the procedure defined in Section 4.3.4.

Candidates who do not reach the pass score in this test will not have their test results processed any further and will not have their eligibility checked.

The written test is aimed at assessing a candidate’s written communication skills. It will be organised as follows:

Test	Language	Duration	Scoring	Pass score
Written test	Language 2	45 minutes	0 to 10	5/10

Candidates will be required to respond to the test assignment(s) based on the provided documentation related to the area of nuclear energy. The written test is not a language test. The assessment will be based on the specific anchors published on the EPSO’s website.

4.3.3. Scoring of the written test and eligibility check

Scoring of the written test and eligibility check will be carried out in parallel. This will be performed in the descending order of the ranking referred to in Section 4.3.2.(b). The Selection Board will only score the scripts of the written test and check the eligibility of a limited number of candidates for each field (not more than 1,5 times the number of successful candidates sought per field).

The eligibility check involves verifying compliance with the eligibility conditions set out in Section 3 (‘Am I eligible?’) of this notice. 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 uploaded to the candidate’s EPSO account to support those declarations.

4.3.4. Establishment of the reserve lists

The Selection Board will include in the relevant reserve list the names of the candidates who (i) have obtained all the required pass scores and one of the highest scores in the field-related MCQ test; and (ii) were found to be eligible. This will be performed in the descending order of the ranking referred to in Section 4.3.2.(b) until the number of successful candidates sought for each field is reached. Candidates who tie for the last available place in the reserve list will also be added to that reserve list.

Names in the reserve lists will be listed alphabetically. The reserve lists will be made available to the recruiting services. The candidates will be notified of their results (test results and/or eligibility-check results) unless those results have not been processed for the reasons indicated in this notice.

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

(2) Regulation No 31 (EEC), 11 (EAEC), laying down the Staff Regulations of Officials and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community (OJ 45, 14.6.1962, p. 1385/62). Consolidated text: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A01962R0031-20220101"

(3) https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=090000168045bb52"

(4) https://epso.europa.eu/en/job-opportunities/open-for-application"

(5) https://epso.europa.eu/en/help/faq/competitions-published-after-january-2023’;"

(3)

on page 13, Annex I, Section 5 ‘Testing’ should read:

‘5. Testing

(1)	EPSO will inform candidates on the testing modalities as well as any necessary details and instructions at the latest when inviting the candidates to the tests.

(2)	If and when instructed, candidates must book a test appointment following the instructions received from EPSO. The booking and testing periods are limited.

(3)

In cases where candidates fail to book, sit or complete one or more of the tests, it will be considered that their participation in the competition has come to an end, unless the candidates can prove that the failure to book, sit or complete a test was due to circumstances beyond the candidates’ control or due to a situation of force majeure. Failure to comply with the terms and conditions for testing specified in the instructions and information made available to candidates will not be considered as a circumstance beyond the candidates’ control or a situation of force majeure.

(4)	Candidates are also invited to consult EPSO’s website (7) to become more familiar with EPSO’s selection procedures, including general requirements applicable to testing.

(7) https://eu-careers.europa.eu/en’;"

(4)

on page 13, Annex I, Section 7.1 ‘Technical and organisational issues’ should read:

‘7.1. Technical and organisational issues

(1)	If at any phase of the selection procedure candidates encounter a serious technical or organisational problem, they should inform EPSO via the online contact form (8).

(2)	For issues with the application form, candidates must contact EPSO immediately and in any case before the deadline for applications.

(3)

If the problem occurs during testing, a candidate must do both of the following:

(a)	report the issue immediately closely following instructions outlined in the letter(s) inviting candidates to test(s); and

(b)

within 3 calendar days, counting from (and including) the day following the day on which a candidate took the test, contact EPSO via the online contact form (9), giving a brief description of the problem.

The obligation to inform EPSO applies in all cases, even where the test delivery provider followed up on the candidate’s complaint. Complaints received after the deadline specified in this point will be rejected.

(4)	The invitation letters may specify further requirements and instructions related to reporting of issues encountered during testing.

(5)	Claims made in the context of complaints referred to in Sections 7.2.2 and 7.3.1 and based on alleged technical and/or organisational issues that had not been reported in accordance with Section 7.1, will be rejected.

(8) https://epso.europa.eu/en/help/faq/complaints"

(9) https://epso.europa.eu/en/help/faq/complaints’."

(1) Judgment of the Court of Justice of 26 March 2019, Kingdom of Spain v European Parliament, C-377/16, ECLI:EU:C:2019:249, paragraph 66.

ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/2265/oj

ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)

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