EPSO tests are organised on specific dates and times to ensure equality and fairness among all candidates.
According to EPSO’s Candidate Complaint Resolution Policy for Testing Events, professional commitments (meeting, conference, business trip) are NOT considered as exceptional circumstances or circumstances beyond the candidate's control.
Therefore, it is not possible to reschedule your test based on professional travel commitments.
EPSO tests are organised on specific dates and times to ensure equality and fairness among all candidates.
According to EPSO’s Candidate Complaint Resolution Policy for Testing Events, personal travel commitments are NOT considered as exceptional circumstances or circumstances beyond the candidate’s control.
Therefore, it is not possible to reschedule your test based on personal travel commitments.
Should you have a serious doubt about the content of a test (WT or FRMCQ), please contact us only via the contact form within 3 calendar days of the date of your tests, by describing what the question or test part was about (content) in order to identify the question or part concerned and explain the nature of the alleged error as clearly as possible. Please also mention your candidate number (see the respective Annex of the Notice of Competition).
If the identified test content does not comply with EPSO´s strict quality criteria despite thorough quality controls in place, corrective measures will be taken.
You will receive a reply to your complaint about the test content shortly before the publication of the test results in the candidates’ EPSO accounts.
If the Selection Board were to readmit you following review, you would re-enter the process at the step where you had been excluded, regardless of how far the competition has progressed in the meantime.
If you received an acknowledgment of receipt after you sent your initial complaint, you should not send a reminder unless a significant time has passed since you wrote.
The replies to review can take several weeks to prepare. The Selection Board must meet to decide, and only after that are the replies prepared and sent.
Accessibility is very important to EPSO. We continually work to improve the accessibility of our communication and selection procedures.
However, if you run into difficulties linked to the accessibility of your EPSO account or our website, please contact us to share your observations and recommendations.
If necessary, EPSO produces adapted formats accessible to assistive technology
Your feedback is essential to us. It helps us improve our services by making them more accessible to everyone.
You can find out more about EPSO's work to improve accessibility on our equal opportunities webpage.
EPSO places great importance on equality, diversity and inclusion, and makes every effort to respect equal opportunities, equal treatment and equal access for all its applicants.
If you feel that you have been treated in an unfair or discriminatory way, due to one or more of the following characteristics: sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation, please contact us straight away to share your observations and feelings.
We pay a lot of attention to feedback from applicants, who are at the heart of our policies and practices on equality, diversity and inclusion management. For more information on how we put these policies into practice, please see our webpage dedicated to equal opportunities.
If you are a candidate who has a validated application for one of EPSO's open competitions or selection procedures, you are entitled to make any one of the types of complaint.
Please also refer to the notice of competition for a full overview of the different ways in which you may submit a complaint.
Each candidate can submit a complaint to the European Ombudsman within two years from the date when the facts or acts of an alleged maladministration occurred.
Each candidate can bring a case before the Court against a decision taken by the Selection Board or the Appointing Authority which negatively affects his/her legal status as a candidate.
The Appeal must be sent to the Court within three months and ten days from the notification of the decision he/she wishes to contest.
A challenged decision can be annulled but not amended by the Court.
No. If deemed necessary, it should be done after receipt of the review reply. The article 90 administrative complaint has to be based on a decision which negatively affects your legal status as a candidate, i.e. in this case based on the Selection Board's negative reply to a review. The deadline for submitting an article 90 complaint is within 3 months from the notification of the decision you wish to contest.
The candidate should immediately inform EPSO so that the necessary measures can be taken in order to avoid any kind of conflict of interests.
Yes, except in cases where test content is intended to be reused. In such cases, you will be informed about this in advance, through the notice of competition and/or the invitation letter to the tests in question.
No. These are covered by the secrecy of the Board proceedings under the Staff Regulations.
Since the standard required is very high and the competition rigorous, you need to have excellent writing skills in your main language, excellent reading and comprehension skills in your source language(s) and possibly cultural knowledge in both your target and source language(s) or the ability to specialize in one or several subject areas.
Your test result is based on your performance on the day of the test and you cannot invoke your professional experience or your qualifications in order to successfully challenge the Selection Board's decision on your performance.
Before communicating results, the Selection Board will have verified, approved and validated them.
Your personal conviction as to how your own qualifications/experience should have been evaluated is subjective and cannot replace the Selection Board's assessment. It does not constitute irrefutable evidence of manifest error committed by the Board.
The Selection Board's evaluation criteria usually include a list of what it considers to be relevant with regard to subjects studied, diplomas obtained, the level of the diploma, the relevance, level and duration of the work experience.
Different elements can explain the Selection Board's decision to exclude you based on the pre-established selection criteria:
Your diploma is not sufficiently related to the field of the competition
Your diploma is not of the right level/duration
Your experience is not sufficiently related to the field
Your experience in the field is too short
You have insufficient relevant experience since obtaining the diploma requested for this competition
Should you have a serious doubt about the content of a test question, please contact us only via the EPSO website (Candidate Contact Service) within 3 calendar days of the date of your MCQ tests, by describing what the question was about (content) in order to identify the question(s) concerned and explain the nature of the alleged error as clearly as possible. Please also mention your candidate number (see the respective Annex of the Notice of competition).
If an identified question does not comply with EPSO´s strict quality criteria despite thorough quality controls in place, the corrective measures are as follows:
You can request a review of any decision of the Selection Board or EPSO, that affects your progress at any stage of the selection procedure, if you consider that there has been a material error or a breach of the rules of the competition procedure.
