Dear Mr X,

On 3 December 2021, you made a complaint to the European Ombudsman about the European Parliament's decision to reject your application for the position of intercultural and language professionals[1] because of your failure to submit the ‘talent evaluator’[2].

In your complaint, you argue that you did include the talent evaluator together with your application. In your view, the Parliament’s decision was arbitrary and non-transparent. You also take issue with the fact that the platform used for the selection procedure did not automatically inform candidates that they had not submitted one of the necessary documents.

We opened an inquiry into the complaint and asked the Parliament to provide our Office with a copy of your application and supporting documents as well as to carry out an IT check on the platform used for the selection procedure to investigate whether there had been any technical issues during the submission of your application. We did not receive any comments from you on the Parliament’s reply, which we shared with you.

On the basis of the information provided by the Parliament, the inquiry team has been able to verify that the talent evaluator was not included among the documents that you submitted together with your application. Additionally, the IT check showed no technical issues with the platform.

The vacancy notice clearly set out that the talent evaluator had to be included with the online application.[3] It is the responsibility of the candidates to follow the procedure set out in the vacancy notice. The fact that the platform used by the Parliament did not automatically inform candidates of missing documents does not change this.

As a result, we consider that the Parliament was correct in rejecting your application, as it lacked one of the necessary documents. We have therefore closed the case with the following conclusion:

There was no maladministration by the European Parliament[4].

We appreciate this may not be your desired outcome, but we hope you find these explanations helpful. Thank you for having contacted the European Ombudsman.

Yours sincerely,

Tina Nilsson

Head of the Case-handling Unit

Strasbourg, 20/05/2022

 

[1] COMPETITION PE/AD/260/2021 - AD5, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:C2021/170A/01&from=EN.

[2] The talent evaluator is a section of the application form in which candidates answer a set of questions related to their qualifications (in particular professional experience). The selection board evaluates the answers at the relevant stage of the selection procedure.

[3] See for instance point B(1)(b) of the vacancy notice informing candidates that “You must complete the talent evaluator which is attached to the Guide for candidates (Annex III) and include it with your online application” https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:C2021/170A/01&from=EN.

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