Ombudsman boycotts ageist hiring system

Date: 14/03/02

By Martin Banks

EUROPEAN Ombudsman Jacob Söderman is refusing to sign up to a new system for recruiting staff to EU institutions because it discriminates against older people.

The proposed European Recruitment Office (ERO) will organise competitions to attract officials to all the main institutions, with each free to choose from the list of successful candidates.

The Brussels-based ERO replaces the current system, in which each institution organises its own entrance competitions, and is expected to be up-and-running by 1 January 2003.

But the Strasbourg-based Ombudsman is refusing to take part in the new set-up unless a provision allowing age discrimination is deleted.

Söderman says that, under the current proposals, the ERO's management board will be entitled to impose an age limit on all job applicants.

He has now written to Pat Cox and Romano Prodi, presidents of the Parliament and Commission respectively, asking them to 'take steps' to ensure the age provision is dropped. 'I cannot agree to sign any decision that does not make clear that the office must not discriminate on the grounds, including age, that are prohibited by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU,' said Söderman.

He points out that more recently established bodies, such as the European Central Bank and Europol, the EU's police agency, do not operate age limits.

'Perhaps this is because they have never formed part of the old-fashioned traditional administrative culture which is proving so resistant to change,' he said, adding that the existing age limit most commonly used for new job recruits by the various EU institutions (45) sets a 'bad example' to employers throughout the EU and applicant states.

'Age limits also tend to disadvantage women who wish to begin or resume their careers after bringing up a family,' Söderman argues.

European Ombudsman Jacob Söderman is refusing to sign up to a new system for recruiting staff to EU institutions because it discriminates against older people.