If pre-selected by a recruiting service for the tests (see useful information here), you will receive the invitation to attend the CAST Permanent reasoning tests in your EPSO account around 10 days before the tests take place.

No, candidates are no longer required to book a testing appointment in advance. With EPSO’s new external test provider, all candidates will be invited to sit their tests on the same day and at the same time.

The exact date and time of the tests are published on the relevant competition page as soon as they are available. Please note that it is not possible to modify the time or date of your tests.

No, you will have to submit one application per profile and/or function group. 

For more information about the profiles and function groups, please see: Contract Agents (CAST Permanent) | EU Careers (europa.eu)

Candidates for contract agent selection procedures (CAST/P) cannot link supporting documents to their CAST/P application/s in their EPSO account. The supporting documents will be presented at the stage of recruitment tests and/or before recruitment to the recruiting services.

Candidates should be able to prove by supporting documents the claims made in their application form (as regards their qualifications, experience, knowledge of languages, etc). Candidates will be informed by the recruiting services as to which documents (copies or originals) they will have to present and when.

EPSO cannot provide information on the rules applicable in various recruiting services as regards the supporting documents. The following should be considered only as non-binding illustration of requirements that may apply:

1. Amongst other documents, candidates will have to provide a valid identity card or passport.
    
2. As a proof of their educational qualifications and training, candidates will have to provide:
   
   a) a copy of their diploma(s) and/or (training) certificate(s) attesting to educational qualifications;
   b) in cases of diplomas/certificates issued in a non-EU country, a statement of equivalency issued by a competent authority of an EU Member State.
    
3. All periods of professional activity must be covered by originals or certified copies of the following documents:
   
   a) Documents from former and/or current employer(s): employment contract(s) indicating the start and end dates of employment and/or first and last pay slips. These documents should indicate the nature, level, as well as a detailed description of duties performed, and they should bear an official header and stamp of the employer, and the name and signature of the person in charge.
   
   b) For non-salaried work, e.g. self-employed/liberal professions: invoices or order forms detailing the work performed or any other relevant official supporting documents specifying the nature and period of the duties performed or services rendered;
   
   c) For freelance translators: documents attesting the time periods worked and the number of pages translated;
   
   d) For freelance interpreters: documents attesting the number of days worked, and the languages interpreted from and into.

The Call for expression of interest (see Section 3) defines only the basic requirements for qualification and experience, that can also be found in the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants. The specific requirements will be defined by the recruiting services in accordance with their needs and vacancies. The recruiting services will assess the candidates’ eligibility based on information provided in the application form and supporting documents that they will ask the candidate to provide. This may be done at the stage of recruitment tests and/or before recruitment.

EPSO cannot provide information on the rules applicable in various recruiting services when assessing the qualifications and/or experience of candidates. The following should be considered only as non-binding illustration of requirements that may apply.

Educational qualifications

Degrees, diplomas and/or certificates, whether issued in EU or non-EU countries, must be recognised by a competent authority of an EU Member State.

Professional experience

1.  To be taken into account, professional experience must normally meet the following general conditions:
   
   a) It must be acquired after obtaining the required minimum educational qualification indicated in the notice of competition;
   b) It must constitute genuine and effective work;
   c) It has to be remunerated;
   d) It must involve a professional relationship, i.e. being part of an organisational structure or supplying a service;
   e) It must comply with the relevance criteria defined in the notice of competition.
2. Professional experience listed below may also be considered in the light of specific rules, for example:
   
   a) In case of voluntary work, ‘remuneration’ is to be understood as any financial contribution received, including cost reimbursement and insurance coverage. Furthermore, voluntary work must involve weekly hours and duration similar to a regular job.
   
   b) In case of traineeships, ‘remuneration’ is to be understood as any financial contribution received, including cost reimbursement and insurance coverage. A compulsory traineeship which is part of a studies programme, may be taken into account provided that (i) the traineeship is undertaken after achieving the minimum educational qualification indicated in the notice of competition, and that (ii) the traineeship is remunerated.
   
   c) A compulsory traineeship which is part of a programme leading to, or which is a pre-condition for, registration with a professional association in order to obtain a right to practise a profession (for example, admission to the lawyers’ bar association) may be taken into account irrespective of whether the work was remunerated. However, where the work was not remunerated, the traineeship period may only be considered provided that the programme was successfully completed and the right to practise obtained. In all cases, only the minimum compulsory duration will be taken into account.
   
   d) Compulsory military service that occurred before or after obtaining the required minimum educational qualification indicated in the notice of competition will be taken into account, including if it does not meet the relevance criteria defined in the notice of competition, but only for a period not exceeding the obligatory duration in the relevant Member State.
   
   e) Maternity, paternity, adoption, or parental leave may be taken into account if covered by an employment contract.
   
   f) In the case of doctorate studies, the period taken into account shall not exceed three years, provided the doctorate was obtained, and irrespective of whether the work was remunerated.
   
   g) The period taken into account in cases of part-time work shall be calculated pro rata, e.g. half-time work for six months will count as three months.

Please check the Notice of Competition or Call for Expression of Interest of your selection procedure for the number of questions, duration and pass scores for the tests.

All EPSO test are organised online. Please check the IT and technical requirements for online testing with EPSO’s new provider. Specific information on the use of Corporate computers for online tests is also available. Detailed instructions for the online tests are sent together with the invitation for the tests via the candidates’ EPSO Accounts and afterwards via the external contractor through email.

Contract staff positions are available for a wide range of jobs, requiring different levels of qualifications. They are divided into four function groups:

• I. manual and administrative support-service tasks
• II. clerical or secretarial tasks, office management and other equivalent tasks
• III. executive tasks, drafting, accountancy and other equivalent technical tasks
• IV. administrative, advisory, linguistic and equivalent technical tasks.

The specific duties will depend on the profile you are interested in. See Annex I to the Call for Expressions of Interest for detailed examples of duties per profile.

Contract staff are employed for a limited period, with an initial contract of 6-12 months.

In some EU bodies, it may be possible for the contract to be renewed for an indefinite duration.

All application/s for EPSO/CAST/P/1-4/2015 (CAST for Executive Agencies) validated by 25.11.2016 (noon Brussels time) were automatically migrated to the CAST Permanent (EPSO/CAST/P/1-4/2017).

If you have already successfully passed the selection tests organised by EPSO for the EPSO/CAST/P/1-4/2015, your results remain valid.

With the exception of the CAST Permanent for contract agents (see more information about this selection procedure), once validated, you can no longer modify the content of your application, as EPSO will immediately process the data.

For CAST Permanent:

You can modify the content of your application(s) for the CAST Permanent selection procedure and upload or update your CV within your EPSO Account at any time.

Don’t forget to update your application(s) at least every six months if you wish to remain visible to the recruiting services. This applies regardless of whether you passed or failed the tests.

Submitting an application in CAST Permanent selection procedure does not in itself mean that you will be invited to sit the tests. Only those candidates shortlisted by the recruiting services will be invited to sit the selection tests if and when a need arises.

The selection process consists of the following steps:

1. Candidates complete and validate their application(s) and update them at least every six months to confirm their interest and to remain visible in the database.
2. When a need arises, the recruiting services pre-select (shortlist) from the database of all validated and visible applications a number of candidates whose profiles fit the requirements of the services.
3. Pre-selected (shortlisted) candidates are invited to the selection tests organised by EPSO around 10 days before the tests take place. These are multiple-choice questionnaires. See more information on the IT and technical requirements for online testing.
4. Candidates who pass the selection tests, will be invited to recruitment tests organised by the recruiting services. Such tests may comprise an interview and other forms of evaluation.
5. Candidates who are successful at the recruitment tests, may receive an offer of employment.

The recruiting services will search the database of all registered candidates and shortlist a certain number of candidates who fit the specific needs of their vacant post. Make sure to update your application every six months in order to remain visible and searchable in the database.

Only shortlisted candidates will be invited, via their EPSO Account, to sit a selection test organised by EPSO.

Check your EPSO account at least every three calendar days. If shortlisted, you will receive an invitation indicating your test date.

The indicative dates of the testing periods are published on the profiles’ pages on our web site. 

Please note that it is not possible to change the date and time of your tests. All candidates will be tested at the same time. 

Candidates shortlisted by the recruiting services will be invited to sit a series of reasoning tests in a multiple-choice question format. Candidates will take these tests in their language 1. See more information on the IT and technical requirements for online testing.

Should you be successful in the tests organised by EPSO, the recruiting service may ask you to sit further tests that it considers relevant for the job, such as a drafting test, a driving test, a language test, etc. All the information about these tests will be provided by the recruiting services.

Please check our sample tests (‘Contract Agents’) for further information.

You will receive your selection tests results via your EPSO Account approximately 2 weeks after the end of the testing period during which you have been tested.

Before publication the results have been previously verified, approved and validated. Once the results communicated, the accuracy of the questions can no longer be challenged.

Testing periods are organised regularly throughout the year. Please refer to the timeline available on each dedicated page of the profile.

CAST Permanent selection procedure attracts a high number of applications. However, the recruiting services only pre-select and shortlist a certain number of candidates whose profiles fit their needs.

No. The recruiting services can only see if a candidate has passed or failed the tests.

Your score will only be visible to you, via your EPSO Account.

If you pass the selection tests organised by EPSO (the reasoning tests) you will be invited for an interview and/or further tests by the recruiting service.

The validity of the reasoning tests results (from the date when the results have been published in your EPSO Account) is 10 years.

The results are always valid for the function group for which you were tested and for any lower function group.

If you fail the reasoning test, you cannot be invited to take another reasoning test for the same or higher function group for the next 6 months. However, you can still be invited to take reasoning tests for lower function groups.

The 6-month period is counted from the day on which the test was taken.

Please note that the recruiting services are not obliged to invite you for re-testing, after the 6-month period is over.

The recruiting services may invite several candidates for recruitment tests for each vacant position. It is up to the recruiting services to provide feedback on the outcome of those tests to the candidates concerned.

However, should you not be successful on that occasion, your EPSO tests results will remain valid for 10 years (*), counting from the date when they are published in your EPSO Account.

Therefore, you may be invited to other interviews and/or recruitment tests by the same or another recruiter.

Don’t forget to update your application(s) at least every six months if you wish to remain visible to the recruiting services.

(*) This only applies to CAST/P procedures. Note that your tests results in the CAST/P selection procedure are not valid for other selection procedures.

If pre-selected and successful in the tests, the recruiting services interested in your profile will contact you (via the e-mail address in your EPSO Account) and invite you for a competency test comprising interviews and/or other tests organised by the recruiting services.

EPSO does not provide information to candidates on which recruiting service is interested in them at any stage of the selection procedure.

You can find more information about the employment conditions in the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants and in the Staff Regulations, as well as the latest information on salaries for officials and contract staff (annual update).

Only candidates pre-selected (shortlisted) by the recruiting services will be invited to sit the selection tests organised by EPSO.

If shortlisted, you will receive in your EPSO account an invitation to test. This invitation is usually published at least 2 weeks before the test date in your EPSO account. Please check your EPSO account at least every three calendar days. You must sit your test within the given timeframes.

The tests are computer-based multiple-choice tests. See more information on the IT and technical requirements for online testing

The type of contract will depend on many elements including on the recruiting service.

For more information about the contractual arrangements, please refer to Chapter 5. Recruitment of the Call for expression of interest.

Yes, you can be pre-selected (shortlisted) for more than one profile and/or function group.

If pre-selected more than once (by more than one recruiter) for the same profile in the same function group, you will only take the tests once.

If pre-selected for different profiles/function groups, you will be invited to sit the tests for these profiles/function groups in the order in which the requests were sent to EPSO by the recruiting services.

Neither the recruiter nor the candidates or EPSO can influence the order of test requests being processed.

If you are no longer interested in sitting the tests, you can simply choose not to sit the test.

If you decide not to sit the tests, this will not affect your eligibility and your application is not blocked.

You can be preselected to test again by other recruiting services in the future.

If you are no longer interested in being tested and/or recruited for a specific profile/function group, you can simply stop confirming your interest via your EPSO account. Six months after the last confirmation of interest or update to your application for that profile/function group, the application will become invisible to recruiters.

You will be able to reactivate your application at any time in the future.

Should you have a serious doubt about the content of a test question please contact EPSO's Candidate Contact Service within one (1) calendar day (that is, by the end of the day which follows the day of the tests) clearly stating the circumstances and your candidate number (see the procedure in the Call for Expression of Interest).

If an identified item does not comply with the EPSO's quality criteria, the following corrective measures will be applied:
- The item will be corrected or taken out of the database;
- Corrective measures may be taken in instances where EPSO finds that a candidate was negatively impacted.

EPSO tests will only assess your knowledge of language 1 (L1), which can be any of the 24 official EU languages. It will be tested through the verbal, numerical, and abstract reasoning tests in a form of multiple-choice questions. Your knowledge of L1 needs to be at least at level C1 (proficient user).

Your knowledge of language 2 (L2) (to be chosen from amongst English, French and German, but different from L1) will be tested by the recruiting services. Your knowledge of L2 needs to be at least at level B2 (independent user).

Further information on the above tests is published on our sample tests’ page.

Recruiting services may organise additional language tests.

No. Creating more than one application for the same profile, including with different target languages is not permitted.

You can declare all your languages under ‘Linguistic skills’ in the application form if you have a working knowledge of more than two official languages. This will allow the recruiting services to find your application according to their specific language needs.

You can request special adjustments of selection tests for the CAST Permanent procedure in your application form by ticking the box ‘special requirements’. You will also need to fill in a detailed information form on your special needs and send us relevant supporting documents.

Should you be granted reasonable accommodations for the tests organised by EPSO, you will be informed on the details before your test date. In some cases, defining and putting in place the necessary adjustments may take some time, and therefore you might be invited to take the tests during the next testing period. Should this be the case we will inform you as soon as possible.

EPSO will make sure that all pre-selected (shortlisted) candidates are invited and tested in the best possible conditions.

Please note that other (recruitment) tests are organised directly by the recruiting services. Should you need special adjustments at the stage of the recruitment tests, please inform the recruiter as soon as you have received an invitation for the recruitment tests. Please note that EPSO will not share any information regarding your condition or special needs with the recruiters.

You can find more information about the employment conditions in the "Conditions of Employment of Other Servants" section in the Staff Regulations, as well as the latest information on salaries for officials and contract staff (annual update applicable from 14.12.2022).

Further information about the rules applicable to contract agents in the European Commission is available in the Commission decision C(2017)6760
For further information about the employment conditions in other EU institutions and bodies, we invite you to get in touch directly with their Human Resources services.

Candidates to contract agent selection procedures (CAST/P) cannot link supporting documents to their CAST/P application(s). Candidates will be notified by the recruiting services as to when they must provide documents supporting the declarations made in their application form. The recruiting services will determine which documents are acceptable.