Brussels, 26/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - By 1 May 2007, 2701 officials and temporary agents had been recruited from among the nationals of the 12 new member states (the ten that joined on 1 May 2004, as well as Bulgaria and Romania). The Commission is well on track to reach its recruitment targets for 2007 by the end of the year. The numbers are taken from a report presented on 26 June to the Budgetary Authority on the recruitment of civil servants from new member states.
2004 Enlargement. 2520 nationals from the new member states (officials and temporary agents) recruited by the Commission at 1 May 2007 (753 Polish and 434 Hungarians). This is already 90.4 % of the ambitious recruitment target set for 2004-2007 (2790). During the first four months of 2007, more than 350 EU-10 nationals were recruited (57% of the 2007 target).
2007 Enlargement. Overall EU-2 recruitment at 1 May 2007 was 181 officials and temporary agents (107 Romanian and 74 Bulgarian), which is 78.7 % of the 2007 target (230). To date, about 80 laureates of EU-2 competitions (for AD linguists) are available for recruitment. Also, laureates of AST secretary competitions should be available as from July and laureates from the first AD generalist competitions in autumn 2007.
Recruitment of management. Overall, progress in this area is considered satisfactory by the Commission. At director general and deputy director general level, the Commission aimed to recruit at least one official from each member state. On 1 May 2007, 16 procedures had been published and eight appointed for the overall indicative recruitment target
For the overall indicative recruitment targets at director and principal adviser level (AD14, excluding heads of cabinet), there were 54 director and principal adviser posts, 41 of which will be appointed at the end of 2009 (EU10) and the others in 2011 (EU2). On 1 May 2007, 42 selection procedures for the recruitment of directors and principal advisers had been launched, 3 of them had to be republished, 6 were closed without any nominations being made and 27 of them resulted in nominations. Out of the 6 people nominated to the post of principal adviser, 3 have since been transferred to positions of director.
Middle management (heads of unit), recruitment has progressed steadily in this area. By 1 May 2007, the Commission had recruited 111 EU-10 nationals, representing close to 60% of the overall indicative recruitment target to be reached by the end of 2009. The indicative recruitment target of Bulgarian and Romanian middle managers is 63. Competitions will be launched shortly, which should result in a reserve list by mid-2008.
All head of representation posts in the member states that joined in 2004 have been filled. The selection procedures for the posts in Bulgaria and Romania are currently underway and should lead to appointments by the end of the year at the latest.