Concours
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Concours or EU concours is a recruitment competition and examination to select staff to all institutions of the European Union. According to the web site of the European Personnel Selection Office whose mission is to organise and administer open competitions to select staff for recruitment to all institutions of the EU, all permanent staff for the EU institutions are recruited through open competitions (commonly referred to as concours in all languages, originally referring to the French public administration's recruitment exams). These attract a very considerable number of applicants from all over Europe who know that passing the competition is the only way to become a permanent official in an EU institution. Regarding non-permanent jobs like temporary agents, a similar selection takes place.
EU open competitions are published in the C series of the Official Journal (OJ) of the European Union. The OJ gives the specific conditions and requirements for each published competition, along with an indication of the number of post available. You may nevertheless sign up for our newsletter to receive up-to-date information on upcoming exams.
Regarding the number of positions, it is always stated in the notice of competition. This number indicates how many successful candidates will be placed on the reserve list, however, it does not guarantee that all of them will actually get a job. Do not despair, many candidates change their minds throughout the application process so this is based on practical experience.
There are several books and ways to prepare for the exams, here is a brief list:
- http://epsoforum.com discussion forum about topics related to EU concours
- EUbookshop.com - selling important textbooks
- EU Competitions - One of the most completed sites in general to prepare the exams
- ScadPlus - The EU's summary of legislation
- European Parliament Fact Sheets - The EP's no. 1. resource
- The Ultimate EU Test Book - book of multiple-choice tests
- Online EU Tests - This site offers EPSO-style exam simulation
- Euractive EU news - Up-to-date events in the EU
- EUobserver.com - Another great source of information
- Pass EU Concours - online test simulation and learning resource