EU Career Paths
Competition-by-competition guides: format, eligibility, scoring weights and what each test actually measures.
On a reserve list and waiting? How long lists last, how institutions search them, what recruiters see, the interview, and the steps from offer to appointment.
The EU's always-open selection for contract agents: the four function groups and 20 profiles, who can apply, how shortlisting works, the reasoning tests, 10-year results, contracts and pay.
The Commission's paid five-month traineeship: around 1,000 places twice a year, who can apply, the six-week rule that rules many people out, how the Virtual Blue Book works and what the grant pays.
EPSO's planner lists lawyer-linguists for the Court of Justice at grade AD 7 in eight languages, provisionally opening 21 October and closing 25 November. What the planner states, what the Court already publishes about the job, and what only the notice can settle.
Lawyer-linguists and legal revisers at grade AD 7 for the Parliament, Council and Commission, in eight languages, provisionally opening 4 November. How it differs from the Court of Justice competition — and the three languages that appear in both.
An AD 7 competition for lawyers in four fields — artificial intelligence law, criminal law, procurement law and litigation — provisionally opening 9 December. Why the field you choose matters more than anything else you decide.
The notice is out: 964 places at grade AST 3 — 423 in data and statistics, 243 in librarianship, 298 in records and archives — with applications until 11 November 2026. Eligibility per field, the tests and pass marks, and why the only ranked test is sat in your second language.
Competitions produce permanent officials — but temporary agents, contract agents, seconded national experts and trainees come in another way, and those posts open every week. The four routes, how they differ, and why the vacancies are scattered across four different places instead of one.
EPSO/AD/430/26 seeks 240 laureates in artificial intelligence and 254 in cybersecurity, and you may apply for one field only. What the choice controls, how the two eligibility gates differ, why your second language carries the test that ranks you, and what the last EPSO round's numbers say about the odds.
The notice is published: 240 places in artificial intelligence, 254 in cybersecurity, at grade AD 8, with applications closing 13 October 2026. The full test structure and pass marks, the eligibility scale, why only 30 questions decide the ranking, and how the reserve lists are built.
Every AD5 candidate must upload their supporting documents by 7 October 2026, midday Brussels time. What the notice actually requires, the 30 September diploma date that catches final-year students, and why this deadline removes people who would have passed the tests.
Verbal 35%, EU knowledge 25%, digital skills 25%, EUFTE 15% — and numerical and abstract worth nothing at all beyond the hurdle. The arithmetic of the reserve list, and why five verbal marks beat a perfect EU knowledge paper.
The number after “AD” is a rank, not a job title. What AD5 and AD7 actually mean, the experience each demands, what every grade pays, and why one competition opens at AD5 and the next at AD7 or AD8.
EPSO is the interinstitutional office that runs the competitions for jobs in the EU institutions. What it is, why it exists, who it answers to, where it sits in Brussels — and the one thing candidates misunderstand: EPSO selects, it does not recruit.
What EU officials really earn and receive — the official 2025 salary grid, free European Schools for children, relocation and installation support, health cover and pensions — plus an interactive AD/AST calculator that estimates a monthly package for any grade, step, duty station and family situation.
Five routes into the EU institutions — permanent officials (AD, AST, AST/SC), contract agents (CAST) and temporary agents — compared on entry requirements, contract security, speed and pay, with the official 1 July 2025 salary tables and correction coefficients.
EPSO's 30 June 2026 announcement splits AD/427/26 into two testing phases: reasoning tests in Nov 2026 (10/20 verbal + 10/20 combined N+A cut-offs), then EU knowledge, digital skills and EUFTE in early 2027. Full timeline, impact on 174,922 candidates, and preparation tips.
A clear walkthrough of the 2026 EPSO AD5 Generalist competition (EPSO/AD/427/26): test format, scoring weights, pass marks, eligibility, and how to prepare. All tests are now remote, with no assessment centre.
The 2026 EPSO AD7 competition for IT professionals (EPSO/AD/429/26): the four fields (ICT infrastructure, project management, clouds & networks, data science), eligibility, the field-related MCQ test, scoring and how to prepare. Applications closed 10 June 2026; now in the selection phase.
The 2026 EPSO AD7 competition in the field of audit (EPSO/AD/428/26): eligibility and experience requirements, the field-related MCQ test, scoring and how to prepare for the EU auditor competition.
EPSO Preparation
Deep dives on each test: the format, the traps that catch candidates out, and worked examples in the official EPSO style.
Three law competitions still to come in 2026, eight on EPSO’s 2027 planner, and what to prepare before the notices.
What you can use without paying, what a free account adds, what Premium adds for €7 a month, and a plan that uses the free tier first.
The settings that block candidates, public sessions vs the one-time check, the overview panel, the calculator and other tools, the submit dialogs, and what to do when it fails.
Step by step: the EU Login set-up EPSO accepts, the Single Candidate Portal, your CV and ID, supporting documents for every entry, statuses, and the traps that cost applications.
Fourteen avoidable mistakes on reasoning test day: setups that do not earn a retest, how to spend 35, 20 and 10 minutes, no negative marking, the clicks that end the session, and the deadlines after.
A last-mile plan for the Oct–November sitting: diagnose, protect the numerical and abstract hurdle, then put everything else into verbal — the only Part 1 mark you carry into the 2027 ranking. Plus how to taper.
TAO and Proctorio, an exhaustive desk policy with no pen and no paper, a room scan, and twelve things that end your test automatically — including two minutes offline. What to set up before the day, and what happens when it goes wrong.
The AD5 reasoning tests arrive in October–November 2026. A week-by-week plan for verbal, numerical and abstract: diagnose first, drill the ranking test hardest, keep the hurdles warm, and finish with full timed mocks under remote-proctor conditions.
Most EPSO candidates sit verbal reasoning in a language they did not grow up speaking. Why competent speakers still lose marks, the five trap patterns to drill, how to choose your Language 1, a 105-second-per-question timing method, and the EU vocabulary that decides your score.
The reasoning test that counts most towards your ranking — the 20-question format, what it measures, the recurring distractor traps (overreach, subtle swap, signed-vs-entered-into-force, unstated cause), and three worked examples in the official EPSO style.
Eight passages on EU topics with four options each, and the trap behind every wrong option named.
Ten questions, twenty minutes, a calculator and a data table. The arithmetic is rarely the hard part — reading the table is. The table traps (unit confusion, absolute vs relative, clustered distractors, "impossible to answer"), and three worked examples.
Real Eurostat data in EPSO’s answer format, with the calculation, the trap behind every wrong option and a 20-second shortcut.
Ten questions in ten minutes — the most time-pressured test in the EPSO selection. No language or knowledge needed, just shapes and parallel rules. The recurring rule patterns (rotation, side count, fill, position), the single-rule trap, and three worked examples.
Rotation, movement, counting, colour, reflection, superimposition, conditions, lag, pointers and noise, with four hard practice questions.
Neighbour rules, two-back series, coupled steps, rule cycles, walkers, topology and conserved totals, with five worked practice questions.
The largest scored test in the AD-5 selection — 30 questions on institutions, treaties, decision procedures and competences. The recurring traps (Council confusion, signed-vs-entered-into-force, QMV vs unanimity, who initiates vs who decides), and three worked examples.
Forty questions built on the DigComp 2.2 framework — data literacy, communication, content creation, safety and problem-solving, with embedded GDPR and AI Act questions. The recurring traps (metadata vs telemetry, GDPR principles, AI Act tiers, IaaS/PaaS/SaaS), and three worked examples.