91997E3384

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3384/97 by Jaak Vandemeulebroucke (ARE) to the Commission (23 October 1997)

Subject: Application form for the European Environment Agency (Copenhagen)

Official Journal C 294A of 27 September 1997 states that the European Environment Agency is organizing a selection procedure to recruit a deputy director.

The application form attached is in English only (this is true of all the language versions of the Official Journal).

If the Commission is really seeking equal treatment for all citizens throughout the European Union, does it not feel that all candidates for this selection procedure should be able to participate in their mother tongue, and does it not think that candidates whose mother tongue is English will be at a clear advantage in this particular instance?

Is the Commission prepared to take effective and tangible measures to prevent any form of future discrimination, and does it have any plans to provide application forms in all the official languages for this selection procedure?

Answer given by Mrs Bjerregaard on behalf of the Commission (1 December 1997)

As the Honourable Member will be aware, the European environment agency is an independent body over which the Commission has no direct control. Responsibility for all agency staff matters, including recruitment, rests with the agency's management board which delegates the day-to-day tasks and general managerial issues to the executive director. The management board itself has two representatives appointed by the Parliament who may be able to help with further clarification in this matter.

The notice for a selection procedure to recruit a deputy director was published in the Official journal in all the language versions based on the material received from the agency. The texts supplied and published consisted of an application form in English and a notice of the vacancy in all the official languages. The decision whether to publish new application forms is a matter for the agency, but the agency has informed the Commission that all candidates for the post who have applied to the agency will be supplied with identical application forms but in their own language so that equal treatment of all the applications can be assured.

As a general rule, Commission representatives on the management board will uphold principles of equality of opportunity and selection on the basis of the ability, efficiency and integrity of the candidate in relation to the requirements of the post.