Brussels, 17/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 17 December, the Court of First Instance once again annulled the announcements for a general competition for recruiting European officials and agents.
This ruling by the court (joint cases of-275/13, T-295/13 and T-510/13) focuses on 11 competition announcements (EPSO/AD/249/13, EPSO/AD/177/10, EPSO/AD/178-179/10, EPSO/AD/260-266/13) and was decided on for exactly the same reasons as the ruling made last September (see EUROPE 11396). EU law is therefore opposed to candidates in these competitions only having the choice in French, English and German in selection procedures and when the tests take place.
Following this decision, the European Commission asserted that “it is possible to improve several elements of the current general rules on the use of languages”. The European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO), in charge of these competitions, is working on this issue and attempting to “ensure both the full respect of the principle of non-discrimination and a proper and smooth functioning of the EU administration with 24 languages”. The solution to this problem will be made known in the first half of 2016, with the announcement of new competitions. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)