EU recruitment strategy gets overhaul 

What's more, the recruitment process - which is currently "far too slow" – will be shortened and exams will be scheduled more often to help attract the best candidates "who are less inclined to wait around," said the EPSO chief, outlining widespread reform of the way people are appointed to the EU institutions. 

EPSO has attracted criticism in the past over its selection procedure. Indeed, last year it was accused by EU Ombudsman P. Nikiforos Diamandouros of maladministration following a complaint from a Polish civil service alumni organisation that EU entrance exams favour English, German and French speakers (EurActiv 23/05/07). 

The latest reform aims to make EPSO's selection procedure "much simpler" and allow the EU institutions to better address the challenges of the modern labour market and demographic situation. "We need to position ourselves on the market to attract the best and the brightest young people," Bearfield explained. 

The reform changes the type of testing employed to select people, using assessment centres and structured interviews to assess the "practical and professional competence" of candidates and moving away from the current focus on their specialised knowledge. To this end, testing of candidates' prior knowledge of the EU institutions at the pre-selection stage will be discontinued. 

Meanwhile, the time span for the selection and recruitment of candidates will be reduced from its current average of two years to between 5-9 months. 

"Having seen the way other international organisations recruit people, it was very clear to me that we had to improve," Bearfield explained. "We recognise that there is stiff competition for the brightest and best, and so we are determined to speed up, streamline and better focus our efforts to attract and select people who are up to the task of serving half a billion citizens as a European civil servant," he added. 

But Bearfield admitted that EPSO could do more to publicise the attractiveness of a career in the EU institutions among young people. "We need to identify the target audience and go to them, rather than sit and wait for them to come to us," he said. 

The changes, which draw on best practice at similar international organisations as well as the private sector, will be implemented progressively between now and 2010.