Permanent Officials
Permanent officials shall be classified, according to the nature and importance of the duties to which they relate, in an administrators´ function group, an assistants´ function group and a secretaries and clerks´ function group. Permanent contracts at EU Agencies/JUs can also be awarded after an open competition procedure. EPSO rules are to be followed for permanent positions.
Temporary Agent
Temporary agents in Agencies/JUs may be employed to perform a wide variety of tasks, within one of the following categories:
- For non-standard and highly specialised jobs or temporary tasks
- To make up for staff shortages in cases where competition reserve lists have been exhausted
- For Executive Directors' private offices ('cabinets')
- For standard jobs to deliver the mandate of an Agency/JU
The length of the contract varies depending on the Agency/JU. The contract can be renewed once. After the second renewal, the contract shall become indefinite.
Contract Agent
Contract agents, similarly to temporary agents, are EU personnel working on a fixed-term contract. The length of the contract varies depending on the Agency/JU. The contract can be renewed once. After the second renewal, the contract shall become indefinite.
The types of permanent contracts and temporary agent contracts are as follows:
Administrator
If you are employed as an administrator you will generally be involved in drafting policies, implementing EU law, analysis or advisory work. The areas covered include administration, law, finance, economics, communications and science, amongst others. Translators and interpreters are also recruited as administrators.
An administrator career ranges from grades AD 5 to AD 16.
If you do not have any professional experience yet, you would qualify for the entry level ‘AD5’.
You also qualify for expert profiles when you have 3 or more years of professional experience (AD6) or 6 or more years (AD7).
Assistant
If you are employed as an assistant, you will typically be engaged in an executive or technical role in administration, finance, communication, research, or policy development and implementation.
An assistant career ranges from grades AST 1 to AST 11, with staff typically entering at grades AST 1- AST 3. As a minimum, an AST 1 candidate must have completed secondary education and have previous relevant experience, or have a relevant vocational qualification.
Secretaries/Clerks
You may perform secretarial tasks such as organising meetings; managing files; preparing business trips; monitoring correspondence and keeping a diary of appointments. You may also assist with drafting memos, notes, minutes of meetings as well as perform document presentation duties such as page layout, formatting and tables.
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