APPLICATIONS OPEN | EPSO AST3 Finance

On 25 July 2024, the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) released an official Notice of Competition for Assistants - EPSO/AST/156/24 - in the following fields:

1. Financial management
2. Accounting and treasury
3. Public procurement

The reserve lists will include a total of 864 places, reflecting a substantial number of sought-after successful candidates.

Free info webcast

To help you navigate the NoC and get up to speed with new developments on the EPSO selection process, EU Training will host an informational webcast on Wednesday, 31 July 2024. All registered participants will get the recording of the webcast directly in their EU Training account.

Facebook groups

Stay informed and collaborate with fellow candidates:

• Financial Management AST3 - EPSO Exams
• EPSO AST3 Accounting and Treasury
• EPSO AST3 Public Procurement

Start preparing

• EPSO CBT (reasoning skills) prep
  • Training sessions
  • Methodology webinars (some are free!)
  • Practice questions with video explanations
• Field-related MCQ practice questions and custom packages COMING SOON

Notice of Competition Summary

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Competition Snapshot

• Open for Applications: 25 July 2024
• Application Deadline: 3 September 2024 (12 PM Brussels time)
• Grade: AST3
• This competition covers 3 profiles - you may apply for only one - and you cannot change profiles after you have validated your application
• Posts will be based in Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg

Under this competition, the following three reserve lists have been advertised, from which the various European Institutions may recruit new members:

Find Annex II in the Notice of Competition to read all about what duties will be expected of you and about the main roles covered by each field.

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ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

General criteria:

• Have EU citizenship
• Fulfilled any military service requirements
• Meet the character requirements for the duties concerned

Language Requirements 

Candidates must know at least two official EU languages.

• Language 1: Minimum C1 level of one of the 24 official EU languages (regardless of your citizenship).
• Language 2: Any of the remaining 23 official languages of the EU at a minimum level of B2. 

Language 1 and Language 2 must be different!

Qualifications & Work Experience

• Find section 3.3 in the Notice of Competition titled  "Specific conditions — qualifications and work experience" for the specific requirements according to your chosen profile. 

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SELECTION PROCESS

1. APPLICATION

Candidates must submit their applications online through the EPSO website no later than 3 September 2024 at noon, Brussels time. The application can be filled out in any of the EU's 24 official languages.

Scanned copies of documents that support the declarations made in your applications must be uploaded and linked to your application through your EPSO account no later than 15 October 2024 at noon, Brussels time.

Existing candidates do not have to upload documents again, but they can add more supporting documents.

2. TESTS

All candidates who have validated their applications on time will be invited to sit a series of tests:

a) REASONING TESTS | Language 1

• Pass/fail
• IMPORTANT: The required pass mark varies depending on your chosen field. 
• Only those who reach the pass mark will have their MCQ scored.

Fields 1 & 2 (Financial management & Accounting and treasury)

Field 3 (Public procurement)

b) FIELD-RELATED MCQ | Language 2

• The EPSO field-related MCQ will be specific to your chosen field.
• Need to reach the pass mark, as well as be among the highest scoring.
• Candidates who reach the pass mark will be ranked per field in descending order according to their scores.
• The ranking will be used to determine whether or not candidates will have their essay scored and eligibility checked, and to establish the reserve lists.

c) EUFTE | Language 2

As far as we know, this will be the first time EPSO makes use of this new type of written test: free-text essay on EU matters.

• Assesses written communication skills only
• It is not a language test.
• The pass mark is 5/10 
• You will have 40 minutes to write your response
• The documents will be available on EPSO's website before the exam.
• The assignment will only be given to you on the day of the exam

3. ELIGIBILITY CHECK + EUFTE SCORING

• The scoring of the EUFTE and eligibility checks will be done at the same time
• The Selection Board will only score the written tests and check the eligibility for those candidates who ranked the highest on the field-related MCQ scores
• These will be checked until not more than 1.5 times the number of successful candidates sought is reached.

Eligibility is checked according to the general requirements and comparing declarations made in candidates' application forms against the supporting documents uploaded.

4. RESERVE LIST

When the scoring and eligibility check is completed the EPSO Selection Board will create the 3 reserve lists from the pool of candidates who

• reached all the required pass marks
• are among the highest-scoring on the field-related MCQ
• were found to be eligible

Candidates will be added to the reserve lists until the number of successful candidates sought has been reached on each list.

• The reserve list is not ranked, and it is arranged alphabetically
• Successful candidates will be notified directly by EPSO
• The Reserve List will be made available to the recruiting services of the EU institutions.

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HOW CAN YOU APPLY?

ALWAYS read the official EPSO Notice of Competition thoroughly to be sure you are eligible before submitting your application. It's also a good idea to familiarise yourself with the General Rules Governing Open Competitions.

Our in-house EPSO expert Luc Gillis wrote this article which offers 7 tips for EPSO applications - very helpful!

To start the application process make sure your EPSO account is created and ready to go then click on your chosen profile

1. Financial management
2. Accounting and treasury
3. Public procurement

GOOD LUCK ON YOUR EPSO EXAMS!

Need more information about EPSO competitions or preparation materials? Our friendly customer support team is always ready to assist you, anytime you need! Contact EU Training customer support here.