Söderman claims victory as institutions scrap age limits

Date: 18/04/02

By Martin Banks

TWO major EU institutions have bowed to pressure and agreed to abolish age limits when recruiting staff.

The decision by the European Commission and Parliament will take immediate effect and follows criticism that their policies of not hiring anyone over 45 are discriminatory. Other EU bodies that still have age limits, such as the Council of Ministers and European Court of Justice, are now under pressure to take similar action.

European Ombudsman Jacob Söderman had refused to back the setting up of the new European Recruitment Office, which will organise competitions to hire officials, unless age limits were scrapped. He welcomed the Parliament and Commission decisions and urged other EU institutions to follow suit.

'This is a great personal victory as age discrimination in EU bodies is something I receive lots of complaints about,' he said. In a pointed reference to the main Union institutions, Söderman says more recently-established bodies, such as the European Central Bank and Europol, the EU's police agency, have no age limits.

'Perhaps this is because they never formed part of the old-fashioned traditional administrative culture, which is so resistant to change.'

In a letter to the Ombudsman, Commission President Romano Prodi writes: 'It is clear that the growing public aversion to all forms of ageism makes it important that the Commission should be seen to set an example.

'Vice-president Neil Kinnock has therefore taken the decision to abolish age limits for all competitions run by the Commission with immediate effect. No Commission competitions published after today (11 April) will apply an upper age limit for applicants.'

• Söderman, who was ombudsman in his native Finland from 1989-95, has announced he will retire next April, 18 months before his term is due to end, after seven years in his present job. He turns 65 next March.

Two major EU institutions, the European Commission and the European Parliament, have bowed to pressure and agreed to abolish age limits when recruiting staff.