Opportunities

 

As well as assisting existing UK civil servants to find interesting positions in Europe, the UK Permanent Representation also actively encourages British citizens to apply for the open recruitment competitions of the EU institutions.  All of the recruitment for permanent positions and certain temporary vacancies within these bodies, which include the European Commission, Parliament, the Council of Ministers and many of the other agencies and bodies, is now handled by one central body, the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO).

EPSO organises regular recruitment campaigns (or competitions), as well as advertising temporary and other positions.

Whilst there have been increasing attempts in recent years to make the recruitment process more simplified, uniform and transparent, the system can still seem complicated.  Candidates will be required to pass pre-selection, written and oral tests before passing to the interview stage. Successful candidates are then placed on a reserve list, which the institutions can then draw on when they have a vacancy to fill.

 

Guidance

 

In order to help interested individuals to navigate through the various stages of the recruitment process, the Cabinet Office has produced a variety of guidance for candidates, which you can download from the links on the right.

 

Other useful sources of information

Interested candidates should check the EPSO pages regularly for information on upcoming competitions and for current vacancies in the institutions.

The European Commission has also recently launched a 'civil service' website, which provides easily accessible information for citizens on working for the EU, amongst other relevant information.

 

UKREP EU staffing unit

UKREP also has a team dedicated to facilitating the careers of UK nationals in the European Institutions. If you cannot find the answer to your questions from the guidance and information above, you can contact our EU staffing team at this email addresss: EU staffing unit.