CAST permanent selection procedure
With the CAST Permanent procedure the EU institutions, bodies and agencies may recruit contract agents to work in various professional fields.
The word CAST stands for Contract Agents Selection Tool. Permanent means that there is no deadline, so candidates can submit an application at any time.
Contract Agents are recruited to perform temporary manual or administrative support tasks or to provide additional capacity in specialised fields whenever there is an insufficient number of officials with the required skills.
Contract staff are recruited in two ways:
1) Contract Agents - CAST Permanent
Contract Agents may be recruited via the CAST Permanent selection procedure.
CAST stands for Contract Agents Selection Tool; Permanent means that the process is open-ended, with no deadline to submit applications.
On our job opportunities page you can find the CAST Permanent Call for Expressions of Interest for profiles such as finance, political affairs/EU policies, secretaries and clerks, information technology, law, communication, to name but a few. Applicants should follow the instructions associated with it.
The procedure requires to create an EPSO account and to insert personal, professional and educational information into the CAST database.
Submitting an application for the CAST Permanent selection procedure does not mean that candidates will automatically be invited to sit the tests.
Whenever recruiting needs arise, the EU institutions, bodies and agencies may search the CAST database and shortlist a limited number of applicants whose skills match the job requirements in question.
These pre-selected applicants will be invited to sit tests organised by EPSO: computer-based multiple-choice tests (MCQ) comprising verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning; a competency test (knowledge in the field of specialisation) or a language comprehension test (for linguist profiles). Pending adjustments in the testing system, EPSO will be responsible only for organising the reasoning tests, but not for the competency tests. The recruiting services of the EU institutions will adapt the selection procedure of Contract Agents accordingly, and keep their relevant services informed of the applicable procedure.
Those who successfully pass the tests may be invited to an interview and eventually be recruited.
Learn more about the process on our CAST Permanent page from which you can apply directly.
2) Contract Agents – Ad hoc vacancies
The EU institutions, bodies and agencies may also recruit contract staff to fill specific positions whenever the need arises. In this case, experts may be required to cover a variety of roles, from financial assistant, to social scientist, webmaster, cyber security engineer, just to name a few.
Unlike the CAST Permanent process, each vacancy has an application deadline and contains information about the application, recruitment procedure and all other details.
EU institutions, bodies and agencies publish ad hoc contract staff vacancies and set their own application and recruitment procedures.
You can find open contract staff vacancies on our job opportunities page.
