CORRECTION: EU recruited 77 from Cyprus since accession

In the three years of Cyprus joining the European Union, the Commission has recruited 77 Cypriots as administrative and support personnel for jobs on the island, in Brussels or elsewhere.

Correcting an earlier mistaken announcement released by the European Commission, 77 Greek and Turkish Cypriots had been recruited in AD (administration) and AST (support officers) posts between May 1, 2004 and May 1, 2007.

The error, published in todayâ€™s edition of the Financial Mirror, showed that 324 people from Cyprus had been hired in AD and AST jobs. That figure represents the data for the Czech Republic that should have appeared in the adjacent column. The corrected version of the announcement was sent much later than the newspaperâ€™s editorial deadline.

One of the Cyprus recruits, Eleni (Lenia) Samuel, former Director General at the Ministry of Labour, has been recruited as Deputy Director General in the Commissionâ€™s Employment Directorate, making her the highest-ranking Cypriot civil servant within the European Union.

Themis Themistocleous has an AD12 ranking and holds the post of Head of Representation in Cyprus.

By May 1 this year, 2701 officials and temporary agents had been recruited from among the nationals of the 12Â new member states. The Commission is well on track to reach its recruitment targets for 2007 by the end of the year, it said in an announcement.

The numbers are taken from a report to the Budgetary Authority on the recruitment of EU-12 nationals, and give an update on progress made in EU-10 and EU-2 recruitment.

Overall, EU-10 recruitment has been excellent, with 2520 nationals from the new member states (officials and temporary agents) recruited by the Commission. This is already 90.4 % of the ambitious recruitment target of 2790 set for 2004â€“2007. During the first four months of 2007, more than 350 EU-10 nationals were recruited (57% of the 2007 target).

EU-2 recruitment of Bulgarians and Romanians as at May 1 was 181 officials and temporary agents, which is 78.7 % of the 2007 target of 230. To date, about 80 laureates of EU-2 competitions (for AD linguists) are available for recruitment. Also, laureates of AST secretary competitions should be available as from July and laureates from the first AD generalist competitions in autumn 2007.

AD is the designation for administration posts fro candidates with university education, while AST determines support officers or administration personnel with technical education.

— Recruitment of management â€œsatisfactoryâ€

The Commission has continued its efforts in recruiting citizens from the new member states to management positions. Overall, progress in this area is considered satisfactory and the Commission is confident that it will reach its indicative recruitment targets by the deadlines. Particular attention will be given to meeting the indicative recruitment targets for each individual member state.

At Director-General and Deputy Director-General level, eight appointment decisions have been taken so far, and two more selection procedures are currently underway. The overall target is one per member state. In addition, 27 nationals from EU-10 member states were appointed to Director and Principal Adviser positions, and six selection procedures are underway. The indicative target at this level for EU-10 countries is 41.

At middle management level, the Commission has recruited 111 EU-10 nationals, representing close to 60% of the overall indicative recruitment target to be reached by the end of 2009.

EU-2 middle management competitions will be launched shortly, together with competitions for a number of EU-10 member states for which insufficient laureates are available.

All Head of Representation posts in the EU-10 member states have been filled. The selection procedures for the posts in Bulgaria and Romania are currently underway and should lead to appointments by the end of the year at the latest.

In order to progressively build up its recruitment of EU-10 and EU-2 nationals, the Commission set for each group an overall indicative recruitment target over a transitional period, as well as indicative levels for the relative share of recruits from each new member state. The aim is to reach an appropriate balance of staff from the new member states, in all grades and categories, by the end of the transitional period (2010 for EU-10, 2011 for EU-2).

— Recruitment of management staff

At Director-General and Deputy Director-General level, the Commission set itself the target to recruit at least one official from each of the new Member States. By May 1, Â 2007, 16 procedures were published, which led to eight appointment decisions at Deputy Director-General level, including Eleni Samuel (EMPL); five procedures were closed without nomination and one procedure was re-published, leading finally to an appointment.

Out of the total indicative recruitment target of 54 Director and Principal Adviser functions at level AD14, 41 should be in place by the end of 2009 (EU-10) with the remainder to be taken in by 2011 (EU-2). By May 1, 2007, 42 Director and Principal Adviser selection procedures were launched; of these three had to be re-published, six were closed without a nomination decision and 27 led to appointment decisions, including Antonis Constantinou (Director, AGRI), Christos Ellinides (Director, DIGIT) and Androulla Kaminara (Director, AIDCO). Of the six who were appointed as Principal Advisers, three have been moved to Director positions in the meantime.

The publication of 12 Director functions which are currently earmarked for EU-12, will take place over the coming months.

— Middle management (Head of Unit)

Since the first middle management reserve lists were published in March/April 2005, recruitment has progressed steadily. By May 1, 2007, 111 middle managers from the new member states had been recruited or were in the process of being recruited, representing close to 60% of the Commission’s overall EU-10 indicative recruitment target for middle management of 189. The target for Cyprus was 6 but in actual fact 10 were recruited, five at AD9 level, 4 at AD12 and 1 Head of Representation.

The indicative recruitment target for EU-2 has been set at 63. The EU-2 competitions which will be launched shortly, should produce reserve list by mid-2008.Â

Target and actual recruitment for EU-10 on May 1, 2004-2007