Brussels, 04/04/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 4 April, the European Commission noted the report by Siim Kallas, Commissioner for the Administration, who gives a satisfactory account of the way recruitment of nationals from the ten countries that joined the EU in 2004 has been conducted. By 15 January 2006, the Commission had taken on 1,627 nationals of the new Member States (1,162 officials and 465 temporary A, B and C category agents), which is a slight improvement on the overall target for 2004-2005 (1,529 persons). The Commission, however, recognises that there are difficulties when it comes to recruiting management personnel (A9, A12, A14 and A15) from these countries, especially the Heads of Unit (A9 and A12). Mr Kallas' report takes stock of progress made since last year (EUROPE 8937). The overall recruitment objective for nationals of the ten new Member States amounts to 3,441 posts over a seven year period (2004-2010). The 1,627 recruited by the Commission at 15 January 2006 included 445 Polish nationals, 285 Hungarians and 216 Czechs.
At senior management level (Director-General or Deputy Director-General, category A15), six nomination decisions have so far been made and five posts of Deputy Director-General have been published following the mobility package adopted by the Commission last November. The Commission has set itself the aim of recruiting at least one official from each Member State, and it hopes to achieve this by mid-2007. So far, 22 appointments for the post of Director and Principal Adviser (A14 except for Heads of Cabinets) have been made out of the 44 foreseen. It has examined no fewer than 2,900 applications and has held 400 interviews, but admits that efforts will have to be maintained in order to meet overall indicative recruitment targets in mid-2007. The Commission has also chosen 5 Heads of Cabinets from the new Member States but has decided not to take this post into account in the recruitment target concerning directors or equivalent positions. The indicative recruitment target for middle management (Heads of Unit, category A9 and A12) is 189 posts for 2004-2010, and 134 for the 2004-2006 period. Mid-March 2006, 46 laureates were recruited by the Commission (34% of the 2004-2006 objective and 24% of the 2004-2010 objective). The Commission plans to keep this pace up in 2006, although the objective will not be easy to achieve. Furthermore, recruitment competitions for Heads of Representation (press offices) in each new Member State were launched in October 2004. Seven of these recruitment procedures have been finalised and the laureates appointed by end 2005. The three remaining (Czech Republic, Latvia and Lithuania) will be appointed mid-2006).
The Commission hopes to strike a good balance in all grades and categories by end 2010. It admits there are difficulties for recruiting middle management and assistants (category B) for which no list of laureates has yet been published. It plans to determine whether there are sufficient laureates before, possibly, going on to take “corrective action” such as launching competitions targeted to certain nationalities.