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The case concerned how the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) assessed the complainant’s professional experience in a selection procedure for recruiting EU civil servants in the field of international cooperation.

The Ombudsman found nothing to suggest a manifest error how the selection board assessed the complainant’s qualifications. The Ombudsman therefore closed the inquiry with a finding of no maladministration.

The complainant, a candidate in a selection procedure for EU staff, appeared to have left unanswered one question in a multiple-choice question tests organised by the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO). EPSO said that she had deselected her initial response. The complainant questioned whether this was even technically possible, as it is not possible in the sample tests available online.

The Ombudsman inspected the technical log for the complainant’s test and found that she had indeed deselected her initial answer. EPSO said that deselecting answers is possible in all test, but not in the sample test, in which it would add a disclaimer about the matter. The Ombudsman thus closes the inquiry with a finding of no maladministration.

The case concerned the fact that the European Commission never invited the complainant, a person with a disability, for an interview although he had passed an EU staff selection procedure in the field of food safety and had been included on a shortlist from which successful candidates may be recruited. The complainant argued that he had been discriminated against because of his disability.

The Ombudsman found no indication that the Commission had discriminated against the complainant. In view of this, and given that the shortlist of successful candidates in which the complainant was included is no longer valid, the Ombudsman concluded that no further inquiries into the complaint were justified.