April EU careers rundown – exams, updates and a look ahead
April kicked off with the exam for Taxation candidates on 3 April, and the applications for the Lawyer Linguist competition for eight languages (for roles at the Commission, Parliament and Council) closed just a day later. Meanwhile, EPSO has released new test dates for CAST candidates, so it’s a good time to check if you're invited to take part.
Later this month, another Lawyer Linguist competition will open on 24 April – this one aimed at roles within the Court of Justice (CJEU). It also covers eight languages, two of which overlap with the other competition (Danish and French). EU Training will run a detailed webcast on 25 April to break down the Notice of Competition.
Looking further ahead, talk is already building around the 2025 AD5 Generalist competition. One key rumour is that the Digital Skills test may be dropped from the selection procedure. Join us this Thursday for a free webcast where we’ll look at what’s confirmed and what’s just speculation: Get Ready for the 2025 AD5 Generalist Exam.
Internal competitions are also moving ahead. Commission internal candidates sat their EU knowledge and written tests in March, with the Oral Test stage up next.
Finally, EPSO published Reserve Lists for the 2024 Transport competition, along with three of the six languages from the 2023 Lawyer Linguists competition – congratulations to all the successful laureates!
Quick Navigation:
- Opening for applications - Lawyer-linguists CJEU
- Lawyer-linguists EC-EP-Council
- CAST
- COM Internal
- EP Internal
- Upcoming EPSO competitions
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EPSO Lawyer-Linguists AD7 | CJEU
Opening for applications
On 24 April 2025, EPSO will open applications for a new lawyer-linguist competition this time for the CJEU. As mentioned above, there will be 8 languages, with two overlapping the other lawyer-linguist competition: Czech (CS), Danish (DA), Estonian (ET), Finnish (FI), French (FR), Italian (IT), Latvian (LV) and Swedish (SV). As usual, you can only apply to ONE of these profiles.
Make sure to join the free webcast with András Baneth on Friday, 25 April 2025.
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EPSO Lawyer-Linguists AD7 | COM-EP-Council
The application period is over and now comes the waiting-for-the-test-to-be-announced period. We're almost finished preparing the profile packages – they’ll be available very soon, so keep an eye out. We’re also putting together a brand new practice option: the Revision Test Simulation, which will be complemented with a dedicated workshop. Once everything is ready, we’ll send out a notification, so make sure your EU Training profile is up to date with your competition details.
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CAST (Contract agent selection tool)
Upcoming CAST exam dates in 2025 are:
- 25 April
- 3 June
- 16 July
You can already start preparing:
- Learn how to improve your chances of success - join an EPSO reasoning skills workshop
- Practise under time pressure while using a similar platform with EU Training's test simulations
These are the parameters for the test taken directly from EPSO's official Calls for Expression of Interest for Contract Staff:
|
Test type |
Questions |
Duration |
Pass mark |
|
Verbal reasoning |
20 questions |
35 minutes |
10/20 |
|
Numerical reasoning |
10 questions |
20 minutes |
NR and AR combined passmark: 10/20 |
|
Abstract reasoning |
10 questions |
10 minutes |
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COM Internal Competitions
Now that the EU Knowledge and Written Tests are behind you, it's time to start focusing on the different components of the Oral Test. Our expert trainers will help you learn what to expect and how to answer questions confidently during the interview, and how to prep for an Oral Presentation under time pressure.
See the full schedule of available Oral Test training sessions here.
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European Parliament Internal Competitions
If you are preparing for these competitions we have created bespoke prep bundles for each profile, take a look here:
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UPCOMING EPSO COMPETITIONS
These are the competitions that will be opening for applications later this year according to the EPSO website.
June 2025
- Building specialists | AD7, 3 fields
- Assistants in the field of communication (AST3)
July 2025
- Generalist administrators | AD5
October 2025
- Secretaries | AST/SC1
November/December 2025
A mysterious new one was added recently - a Luxembourg-specific competition, tentatively opening at the end of this year. No other information is available.
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