Decision of the European Ombudsman concerning complaint 2112/2020/DDJ against the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) on how it handled a complaint concerning the lack of availability of practice materials in Maltese for EU staff selection procedures

Dear Ms X,

On 9 December 2020, you submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman against the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) concerning the above issue.

You say that it is unfair and discriminatory that far less training material is available in Maltese than in other languages. In particular, you point to the abundance of training material available in other languages on certain websites and in books. You argue that this leads to unequal access to the EU civil service for Maltese candidates and you would like EPSO to remedy the situation.

After a careful examination of the information provided by you, the Ombudsman finds no maladministration by EPSO.^[1]

It is not EPSO’s role to provide training material. In addition, the fact that private companies produce training material in certain languages only is not within EPSO’s control. As set out by EPSO in its reply to you on the matter, it offers the same amount of sample tests in the 24 official languages of the EU. The Ombudsman does not consider EPSO to act in an unfair or discriminatory manner.

I realise that this decision is likely to disappoint you. I do hope that the above information and explanations are nevertheless helpful.

Yours sincerely,

Tina Nilsson
Head of the Case-handling Unit

Strasbourg, 18/12/2020

 

[1] Full information on the procedure and rights pertaining to complaints can be found at https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/document/70707.