We are storming the redoubt of Brussels! Young Romanians, the employees preferred by the European institutions

The European institutions in Brussels have recently hired more debutant civil servants from Romania and Greece, while the number of civil servants coming from the Scandinavian member countries of the EU - Sweden and Finland, has dropped precipitously, according to a study carried out by Politico.eu .

According to the data presented from the cited source, of the 14,000 high-ranking civil servants from the European institutions in Brussels, 7.2% are debutant/junior civil servants from Romania, and 3.76% are Romanian civil servants who have management duties in the respective institutions.

7.2% of rookie/junior Romanian civil servants show that the European institutions in Brussels, and especially the European Commission (which has a total of approximately 32,000 employees, according to the data available on the website of the European institution), have far exceeded in the recruitment process the degree of national representativeness, for each member state, among the employees, a degree that is fixed at 4.5%, while Sweden has only 0.85% of debutant officials.

That's why countries like Denmark, Sweden and Finland claim that the European Union must change its recruitment policy, because otherwise it risks eliminating Nordic officials from the European Commission, the forum that holds the legislative initiative for the entire EU bloc. The concern of the Nordic states, which are well represented among officials with management duties in Brussels, is given by the fact that the new contingent of young officials will change the proportion in the future in terms of management positions.

Becoming a European civil servant - or Eurocrat, as the quoted source puts it - is, from a financial point of view, more attractive in some EU countries than in others. With starting salaries of around 5,000 euros per month for full-time employees, a career in the European Commission is tempting for young people from EU member states with lower average annual salaries - such as Greece (15,897 euros/year) or Romania (13,000 euro/year) -, compared to those from Denmark, who have an annual income of 63,261 euros or Sweden - annual income of 46,934 euros.

"If you are from Romania, working for the EU is a great job. Maybe not so much if you're from Sweden, where there are a lot of attractive jobs," said Carolyn Ban, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh in the US, according to the source cited.

This is reflected in the Commission's staffing data, which shows that Greece and Romania are over-represented in the lower and middle ranks of European Commission officials, while Swedes, Danes and Finns are under-represented at the same level of officials.

That is why the Scandinavian countries - Sweden and Finland - argue that the way staff are recruited must be changed, stating that at the moment the European Commission has a protracted recruitment process, a poorly designed entrance exam for certain countries and jobs which, not they are so attractive to young Scandinavians.

"For Sweden, the main problem in the Commission is the recruitment of... junior officials without a management role. This is really becoming a political issue. If you don't fix this problem, it could spread anti-EU sentiment in member states," warned Matilda Rotkirch, a diplomat at the Swedish mission to the EU.

In order to change recruitment policy at European level, Denmark, Sweden and Finland will try together with other EU member states to reach an agreement to prevent geographical imbalance in European public functions. Their activity is not to the liking of Italy, Romania and Greece, who do not want a change in the personnel recruitment system at European level, says the quoted source, who shows that the debate is not only a human resources issue, but one in which each EU member state wants to propel as many people as possible to Brussels to protect its interests exactly where the decisions are made. Especially since it's the 14,000 European officials who implement high-stakes political decisions and set rules governing everything from car pollution to the reimbursement of arms donations to Ukraine.

Interestingly, the geographical discrepancies are not nearly as severe at the higher levels of the Commission. Among the senior staff of the EU executive, for example, Denmark and Sweden are mostly represented in line with the EU's goals, while Finland comes in just over.

"Member states that say they are underrepresented are not that qualified, because they are very good at the level of decision-making positions", said an EU diplomat, for the quoted source.

"We are well represented among the high-ranking officials. But once these people retire, what's left? That's the problem," said Jenni Hakala, who promotes EU careers for the Embassy of Finland in the EU.

Cristiano Sebastiani, the president of Renouveau et Democratie, a union representing EU employees, argued that the northern European countries got into this situation because of the authorities in the respective states. He mentioned that the Scandinavian member states of the EU worked intensively in 2004 to review the state of staff in the European institutions, which led to the reduction of the privileges of officials within the Commission, a reduction that made the respective jobs less attractive for young people from Sweden and Finland.

The experts from the Nordic states do not share the same opinion, who accuse the fact that the long selection process of the EU bureaucracy - known as the competition in the Brussels bubble - inevitably favors young people with fewer employment opportunities in their own state.

"Young Finns are not used to ending up on a candidate list where they may have to wait about a year or a year and a half before being invited to take up a job," said Henrik Pekkala, a consultant at KPMG and who conducted a study on this topic for the Finnish government.

Other experts say the tests young people have to take to get a job at the European Commission are more in line with the education systems of Italy, Spain and Belgium, which have a similar civil service exam to enter national government work .

"People who go to certain universities get better coaching on how to prepare for the competition and how to succeed in the competition," American professor Carolyn Ban said, according to the source cited.

The European Commission has already modified its recruitment process to respond to requests from across the bloc and reduced procedural terms, increasing awareness of graduates from underrepresented countries. But Finns and Swedes want job competitions specific to each Member State, which would mean discrimination in the recruitment process.

"The possibility to set up national competitions is not in line with the Treaties and does not respect the basic principle of EU civil service recruitment, which is the individual merit of candidates," said an official from an over-represented country in the Commission, according to the source cited. .

The European Commission has ruled out any option that would create quotas for countries.

"The concept of [a] quota of nationals is not applicable in the EU institutions. Our recruitment is based on merit and no post is reserved for nationals of a particular Member State," said a spokesperson for the European Commission.

However, some institutions in Brussels are toying with the idea of setting indicative quotas for each EU country.

For this year's applicants, the Commission has adapted its flagship Blue Book internship - which brings hundreds of people to Brussels each year for a five-month internship - to stimulate new hires from traditionally underrepresented countries and reduce geographical imbalances general. The changes brought the 2023 class more in line with some of the Commission's geographic targets.

The European Parliament will also launch country-specific competitions to help recruit its civil servants, despite growing concerns that the plan will be challenged at the Court of Justice of the European Union.