This competition does not have a notice yet. EPSO's planner of upcoming selection procedures lists EPSO/AD/431/26, a competition for lawyer-linguists at the Court of Justice of the European Union at grade AD 7, covering eight languages, as provisionally publishing on 21 October 2026 with a provisional application deadline of 25 November 2026. EPSO marks both dates with an asterisk and the words “dates to be confirmed”. What follows separates what the planner states from what only the notice can settle — and adds what the Court itself publishes about the job, which does not depend on any notice.
What the planner states
| Item | What EPSO publishes |
|---|---|
| Reference | EPSO/AD/431/26 |
| Profile | Lawyer-linguists |
| Institution | Court of Justice of the European Union |
| Grade | AD 7 |
| Languages | Bulgarian · German · Greek · Spanish · Irish · Maltese · Dutch · Romanian |
| Publication | 21 October 2026 (provisional) |
| Application deadline | 25 November 2026 (provisional) |
EPSO's own wording for this entry is “Bulgarian-/ German-/ Greek-/ Spanish-/ Irish-/ Maltese-/ Dutch-/ Romanian-language lawyer-linguists (AD 7)”. In the 2025 round, the equivalent Court of Justice series carried one reference per language — EPSO/AD/424/25 – FR, EPSO/AD/424/25 – IT and so on — under a single notice. Whether 431 is structured the same way, and whether you may enter more than one language, is for the notice.
What a lawyer-linguist at the Court actually does
This part does not depend on the notice, because the Court publishes it itself. A lawyer-linguist is responsible for translating judicial texts — judgments of the Court of Justice and the General Court, Opinions of the Advocates General, and the written pleadings of the parties — into the language of the competition. The Court employs around 600 lawyer-linguists, and each language has its own dedicated unit. The duty station is Luxembourg.
The Court is unusually direct about the demands: lawyer-linguists “carry a great responsibility” and need high-level legal and linguistic skills, working quickly and under pressure. This is not a translation job that happens to involve law, nor a legal job that happens to involve languages. It is a legal-reasoning job performed across languages, on texts that are binding in every one of them.
What the Court already says about who can apply
Again from the Court's own published requirements, not from a notice that does not exist:
- A law degree awarded by a Member State and relevant to the language of the competition — the qualification has to match the legal system behind that language.
- A perfect command of the language of the competition.
- Knowledge of at least two other official EU languages.
- Tests that involve translating and revising legal texts from two other official EU languages of your choice into the language of the competition — without a dictionary.
- Success puts you on a reserve list; an interview follows only as and when a post needs filling. See what EPSO is for why selection and recruitment are two separate things.
In the 2025 round EPSO's competition pages listed four test components — reasoning tests, a translation test, a language-comprehension test and a translation review — with the reasoning and translation tests sat on the same day. Treat that as precedent, not as this competition's structure.
What AD 7 pays, and what the grade signals
On the salary scale in force since 1 July 2025, AD 7 starts at €7,876.27 a month in basic pay, before allowances and before the correction coefficient for your duty station. AD 7 is not an entry grade: the EU's graduate entry point is AD 5, and AD 7 competitions normally expect qualifications and experience beyond a first degree. Where the grade sits on the ladder is set out in our guide to AD 5, AD 7 and the EU grade ladder, and the difference between the AD, AST and contract-agent routes in AD vs AST vs CAST.
What the notice will decide — and this page will not guess
- How many successful candidates are sought, per language.
- The exact eligibility scale — which degrees qualify, and whether any professional experience is required.
- Whether you may apply in more than one language, and how the per-language references are numbered.
- The tests, their marks and their pass marks, and which one produces the ranking.
- The language regime — which languages may serve as your source languages, and what level each must reach.
- Whether the dates hold. Provisional EPSO dates move.
The reasoning tests are the one thing that does not change
Whatever the notice settles about fields, languages and eligibility, EPSO competitions open with verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning, and they are scored before anything else you wrote is looked at. They are also the only part you can prepare while the notice does not exist.
Start practising → First 25 questions free · no account needed to tryWhat is worth doing before 21 October
Practise the reasoning tests. They are common to every EPSO competition and they are marked first. Our guides to verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning cover the formats, and the test-day guide covers the conditions, which are stricter than most candidates expect. If you will sit them in a language that is not your first, verbal reasoning in your second language is the guide to read.
Practise translating without a dictionary. This is the one preparation specific to this competition that can be done now, because the Court has published the constraint itself. Take a recent judgment in each of your source languages from the Court's own case-law database and render it into your competition language under time, unaided. The gap between “I read this language comfortably” and “I can produce binding legal prose from it without help” is the thing the test measures.
Assemble your supporting documents now. Diplomas showing the date of the final award decision, employment certificates with exact start and end dates, and proof of your language knowledge. Recent EPSO competitions check eligibility against the documents you upload rather than against what you declared, so an undocumented year is a lost year. Obtaining a document takes weeks; uploading one takes minutes. Our guide to the supporting-documents check explains how that verification actually runs.
The rest of the competition calendar
All of these dates are EPSO's provisional ones, published in its planner of upcoming selection procedures and marked by EPSO itself as dates to be confirmed.
| Competition | Grade | Fields or languages | Published | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data management — EPSO/AST/158/26 | AST 3 | Data analytics · librarianship · archives | 6 October* | 11 November* |
| Lawyer-linguists, Court of Justice — EPSO/AD/431/26 | AD 7 | BG · DE · EL · ES · GA · MT · NL · RO | 21 October* | 25 November* |
| Lawyer-linguists / legal revisers — EPSO/AD/432/26 | AD 7 | ES · FI · GA · IT · LV · MT · PT · SV | 4 November* | 8 December* |
| Lawyers — EPSO/AD/433/26 | AD 7 | AI law · criminal law · procurement law · litigation | 9 December* | 20 January* |
The only competition open for applications right now is EPSO/AD/430/26 in AI and cybersecurity, at grade AD 8, which closes at midday on 13 October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
When does EPSO/AD/431/26 open?
EPSO's planner gives a provisional publication date of 21 October 2026 and a provisional application deadline of 25 November 2026. Both are marked by EPSO as dates to be confirmed. No notice of competition has been published yet, so nothing about the competition is fixed until it is.
Which languages does the Court of Justice competition cover?
Eight, according to EPSO's planner: Bulgarian, German, Greek, Spanish, Irish, Maltese, Dutch and Romanian. In the 2025 round the equivalent series carried one reference per language under a single notice. Whether candidates may apply in more than one language will be settled by the notice.
Do I need a law degree to apply?
The Court's own published requirements for lawyer-linguists ask for a law degree awarded by a Member State and relevant to the language of the competition, a perfect command of that language, and knowledge of at least two other official EU languages. The binding version of those requirements, including whether any professional experience is required, is set by the notice.
Can I use a dictionary in the translation test?
The Court states plainly that its lawyer-linguist translation and revision tests are done without the use of a dictionary. That is published by the Court rather than set competition by competition, but the notice remains the binding text for this competition's tests.
Every date and language list on this page comes from EPSO's planner of upcoming selection procedures as it stood on 8 September 2026. The AD 7 salary is from the scale in force since 1 July 2025, published in the Official Journal as C/2025/6564. The description of the lawyer-linguist role, the qualification and language requirements and the no-dictionary rule are published by the Court of Justice itself; the 2025 test components are from EPSO's competition pages for EPSO/AD/424/25. When the notice of competition is published it becomes the only text that binds, and this page will be rewritten from it.