The European institutions competition has changed shape. The assessment centre and its oral tests, in place since 2010, no longer exist: every test is taken online under remote invigilation, and the candidate no longer travels. Any description that still speaks of a group exercise or a structured interview is describing an arrangement that has been abolished.
This page describes the process as it is written in the official sources on 4 August 2026. It also states frankly the points on which those sources are silent or contradict one another.
The competition notice is not a presentation brochure, it is the text that lays down the law. The notice for the AD 5 administrator competition published on 5 February 2026 says so in as many words: this notice and its annexes, including the general provisions, form the binding legal framework applicable to the competition.
The consequence is simple, and it applies to this page too: no third-party information, no preparation site, no forum, Erudiam included, carries the slightest binding value. Before the selection board, only the notice counts.
The interinstitutional management board of EPSO decided to abolish the oral tests. The first competition organised under the new model was published on 22 June 2023. Since then, EPSO states that all tests take place online under remote invigilation, in a single testing session, and therefore on a single day per candidate.
EPSO sets out an objective: to complete a competition in six months, from publication of the notice to establishment of the reserve list. It is an objective, not a commitment, and the facts published by EPSO itself show that it is not always met.
The AD 5 administrator competition opened in 2026 illustrates the point: notice published on 5 February 2026, applications closed on 10 March, more than 174 000 applications received, the first part of the tests announced for October and November 2026, the second part postponed to 2027. Between publication of the notice and the final tests, more than a year will have passed.
EPSO describes the following sequence for an open competition. The order in which the tests are organised may differ from the order in which they are listed: the notice for the AD 5 competition of 2026 states this explicitly.
An EPSO account is compulsory. Every notification passes through it, and it is up to the candidate to go and read them.
This is the most poorly understood point of the arrangement, and the competition notice leaves no ambiguity: being placed on a reserve list constitutes neither a right to recruitment nor a guarantee of it.
The list is a pool. Institutions, bodies and agencies look there for the profiles matching their needs, then invite the people selected to an interview. A successful candidate may be contacted by several institutions, or by none. They may also apply themselves to the vacancies published in their account.
We publish no average recruitment time: we found no verifiable official figure, and a plausible but unverifiable figure is worth no more than an honest silence.
The appeal deadlines are short and are counted in calendar days, not working days. The values below come from the official EPSO pages consulted on 4 August 2026; the competition notice may lay down its own deadlines, and it is the notice that prevails.
One practical point is often overlooked: the administrative complaint must not be lodged before the reply to the request for review has been received. It is that reply which sets the three-month period running.
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