Dear administration, please be coherent with your own rules!

Sometimes Commission staff wonders what the administration has in mind when taking decisions!

On 27 October 2023, the Commission published the Notice of internal competition COM/AD5/2023 with a deadline for applications on 27/11/2023.

As this is an internal competition, candidates’ eligibility is calculated on the basis of the time they have worked for the Institution: at least the last 12 consecutive full months prior to the deadline for applications as contract or temporary agents, of which at least the last 6 consecutive full months as temporary agents in the AD function group.

Setting the deadline for applications on the 27th day of any given month of the year simply means that a number of potential candidates just miss the deadline for three days!

What is the purpose of such a decision, taking into account the fact that the dates on which newcomers take up their duties in the Commission services are the 1st and the 16th day of each month?

Union Syndicale immediately sent a note to Ms Ingestad, DG HR, pointing out the necessity to always set the deadline for internal competitions on one of the dates that are used for recruitment of staff, in order to avoid justified frustration among colleagues who feel that they are being treated in an unfair way.

Additionally, Union Syndicale asked Ms Ingestad to slightly delay the deadline for this specific internal competition in order to include those colleagues who were recruited on the 1st of December.