Drop in applicant numbers for Commission positions

Date: 04/06/1998

By Chris Johnstone

CLEARER job descriptions and the withdrawal of travel expenses for the entrance examination have helped deter job seekers from applying to become the European Commission's future high-flyers.

Although the first major recruitment drive by the Commission for five years caused long queues at some Brussels post offices as last-minute applicants raced to meet the deadline, the final total of 28,000 candidates for administrative jobs was around half the number who applied for the Commission's last high-level entrance examination in 1993.

The smaller tally of applicants is a success story of sorts. Job descriptions and ideal-candidate profiles were designed this time round to weed out casual applications. "We tried to encourage a higher degree of self-selection through criteria for access and signals about the type of tests to be taken," explained Erik Halskov of the Commission's Directorate-General for personnel (DGIX).

The fact that candidates will, for the first time, have to pay the cost of travel to examination centres to sit the written papers is also believed to have deterred some from applying. These examinations will be held in most EU countries in September.