European Commission Reviews

Probably much better, if you were hired pre-2004 or 2014 staff reform under the concours/ as a permanent Eurocrat (so you get all the perks while others on precarious contracts do the work for you). The EU institutions keep going on about human rights, paying people the same for the same amount of work etc. ... but they are doing the EXACT OPPOSITE when it comes to (a) recognizing credentials of the millennial generation (often we have more degrees than the older folks, plus more international experience - which should be good for the EU given that it's supposedly international ...) and (b) paying us at the same level as permanent officials. So in reality, the EC has created a second class of workers that work more than the permanent officials - for less money, fewer benefits and less security. Here's your problem with the EU in a nutshell: Unless you have connections, you will not advance. It's like a modern day feudal system. If you can, stay away ... the EU dream has long died at the hands of corrupt EU officials - just look at where Barroso works now and you get the idea...

There is only one reason to work here: salary and benefits are great. Actually there is a drawback to it: people stay for the salary and not because of motivation. Your colleagues will be the type of persons who are just content with that. In other words: certainly not an exciting and creative posse. The younger generation in the Commission is better. Hopefully things will change on some tectonic-movement timescale. I joined motivated by ideas: contribute to Europe, work on strategic policies, support innovation and the society. I found an environment of harassment, in which people are motivated by procedures and not by ideas, in which the ones who make career are the least inspired and knowledgeable, in which self-initiative is impossible, in which merit is obscured by million other issues. The bottom-line: join the EU Comm if you are just satisfied with a huge, non deserved paycheck, and try to sit on your benefits and resist the bullying of your supervisors. Disclaimer: few islands of a different nature exist in the commission. they are very rare.