Over the past decade, the average age of the European Commission’s staff has increased significantly, Politico reports. And, as the publication notes, the problem of aging employees goes far beyond the European Quarterly, as Eurocrats are developing crucial reforms. Now, the European Commission is updating its hiring system in hopes of attracting younger employees.
The European Quarter, where the bulk of the European Union’s Brussels offices are located, is filled with grey-haired “lifers” who know the corridors of the offices like the back of their hand. However, Politico reports that the European Commission is updating its hiring system in hopes of attracting fresh blood. It’s introducing easier entrance exams and a more modern work culture.
Still, many say more radical reforms are needed to reverse the aging of EU officials. The average age of full-time commission staff has risen significantly over the past decade. It rose from 45 to 50 between 2010 and 2022. The European Commission has minimised the number of competitions and discouraged young aspiring civil servants with lengthy selection procedures. The Commission also raised the standard retirement age for its employees to 66.
The few members of the Millennial generation who still managed to get selected complain that they are treated as second-class employees. “I have older colleagues who earn five or six times as much as I do, doing exactly the same job and with exactly the same level of responsibility,” a European Commission official, who requested anonymity, told the publication. According to him, between 70 and 80 per cent of his team are men in their 50s.
And to make matters worse, the EU’s highest court has struck down the upper age limit of 35 for bids on the grounds that it discriminated against older candidates. In practice, this resulted in younger candidates competing with older and more experienced colleagues who ended up gaining an advantage in the EU recruitment process.
High-ranking EU officials who rose to the top at a young age admit to feeling quite uncomfortable. Former EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who joined Brussels at the age of 41, said she “felt too senior to be so young”. “And actually, yes, looking around, I realise I was very young compared to what was expected of me,” she recounted last October.
Brussels had high hopes for the large-scale competition, which was scheduled for November, but the EU’s human resources agency postponed it amid complaints about technical glitches in the virtual test. That further undermined the EU’s shattered reputation among younger employees.
“This generation has been growing up with negative attitudes towards the EU for quite some time. We have also seen in a certain number of surveys that the younger generation is more Eurosceptic than the older generation,” said Magali Gravier, an academic at Copenhagen Business School.
And, as Politico points out, the implications of this “generational clash” go far beyond the European neighbourhood. Eurocrats are developing crucial reforms on issues such as climate change and digital regulation that primarily affect the younger generation. It is wrong for reforms to depend solely on age-related staff, the budding Eurocrats say.
But the commission has revamped its hiring process to attract more millennials to its ranks. In 2022, it has promised to reduce waiting times for entrance exams and expand remote working opportunities in an attempt to make a career in Brussels more attractive to young graduates from across the EU.
“The competitions will be quicker. It will be done in three months, ideally, rather than a year – which is much more acceptable for those graduating from university,” Politico quoted a senior commission official as saying in a brand new office with high-tech equipment.
Each department will pick its own staff. The new rules also allow each department to set different work-at-home rules, creating competition for attractiveness between departments and allowing each applicant to choose their preferred offer. The European Commission is also moving towards digital testing.
Still, critics argue that a deeper cultural shift is needed to change the working environment in Brussels. Some believe intransigent employees will thwart the European Commission’s attempts to modernise its work culture.