Glossary of terms commonly used in EPSO selection procedures.

Secretaries/Clerks (AST/SC)

European permanent officials, are classified into three groups: Administrators (AD), Assistants (AST) and Secretaries/Clerks (ASC-SC).
Secretaries and clerks are generally involved in office management and in providing administrative and technical support.
Their duties include finalising documents and files; supporting the unit’s or department’s activities (meetings, official travel, diary); compiling and disseminating information (updating databases, files); performing manual tasks.

A secretary/clerk career ranges from grade AST/SC 1 to AST/SC 6. New staff usually enters at grades AST/SC 1 or AST/SC 2.

See the related FAQs and the EU staff categories.

Selection Board

Selection Boards decide on the difficulty of the competition tests and approve their content, assess the candidates’ compliance with the specific eligibility criteria, compare candidates’ merits, and select the best candidates in the light of the requirements set out in the notice of competition.
The proceedings of the Selection Boards are secret, and their work is facilitated by EPSO.

Each competition for permanent officials has its own Selection Board, composed of officials from the EU institutions and bodies served by EPSO.

Officials join the Selection Board on a voluntary basis, following a dedicated call for interest. Selection Board members are nominated formally by their organisation of origin. They must have no conflict of interest as regards their competition in order to be confirmed as members of the selection board.

Since 1 January 2023, selection boards no longer include permanent members systematically. Gradually, all Selection Boards will be composed of non-permanent members only.

Nominated Selection Board members are trained on selection and assessment methodologies before they take up their duties and continue to receive specific training and guidance from EPSO’s team of psychologists during the different stages of their competition.

Selection procedure

A selection procedure is a structured process to recruit staff members for the European institutions.
It involves a series of selection stages to evaluate candidates' skills, knowledge, and experience against the specific requirements of a given profile. It ensures merit-based recruitment and equal opportunities for all applicants.
Selection procedure includes: competitions for Permanent officials and other procedures like CAST.

Subject matter expert (SME)

In the context of EPSO’s selection procedures a subject matter expert, or SME for short, is someone whose job is to participate in the process of creating certain types of written tests, such as field-related questionnaires.

SMEs are officials from the EU institutions and bodies served by EPSO. They take on this task for a limited period of time, in parallel with their usual work.
Permanent officials become SMEs on a voluntary basis, following a dedicated call for interest. They are nominated formally by their organisation of origin and must have a relevant profile in terms of knowledge or expertise in order to participate in the process of test development. They must have no conflict of interest as regards their competition in order to be confirmed as SMEs.
Nominated SMEs are trained by EPSO on test development methodologies before they take up their duties and continue to receive specific support from EPSO throughout their assignment.
Every test development process is analysed by EPSO’s team of psychologists in order to detect any possible bias. EPSO ensures that the process follows the agreed standards for large-scale selection procedures such as the ones organised by EPSO.

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Glossary of terms commonly used in EPSO selection procedures.

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