European Commission

Mission and mandate

The Commission's mandate is set out in Article 17 TEU: it proposes EU legislation, executes the Union's budget, manages programmes, ensures the application of the Treaties under the supervision of the Court of Justice, and represents the Union externally on most matters except foreign policy. Internally, the political leadership is the College of 27 Commissioners — one per member state — chaired by the President of the Commission. Each Commissioner holds a portfolio (e.g. Internal Market, Climate, Trade) and oversees the Directorates-General that report to them.

The current College, the second von der Leyen Commission, took office on 1 December 2024 for a five-year term and reorganised several portfolios — most notably creating new portfolios on Defence and Space and on the Mediterranean, and grouping economy, productivity, and the single market under fewer Executive Vice-Presidents. Each new Commission triggers structural changes: DGs can be split, merged, or relabelled, and these reorganisations propagate into vacancy notices for two to three quarters afterwards. Candidates should pay attention to the political guidelines published by an incoming Commission for clues about which DGs are likely to grow.

Structure and Directorates-General

The Commission is structured into Directorates-General (DGs) by policy area, and a smaller set of services that cut across all DGs. Major DGs include DG TRADE (international trade negotiations), DG COMP (competition and state aid enforcement), DG GROW (single market and industry), DG ECFIN (economic and financial affairs), DG CLIMA (climate action), DG ENER (energy), DG MOVE (mobility and transport), DG AGRI (agriculture and rural development), DG REGIO (regional and urban policy), DG EMPL (employment, social affairs, and inclusion), DG JUST (justice and consumers), DG HOME (migration and home affairs), DG SANTE (health and food safety), DG RTD (research and innovation), DG CNECT (communications networks, content, and technology), DG INTPA (international partnerships), DG NEAR (neighbourhood and enlargement negotiations), DG ECHO (humanitarian aid and civil protection), DG TAXUD (taxation and customs), and DG FISMA (financial stability, financial services, and capital markets union).

Alongside the policy DGs, horizontal services include the Secretariat-General (which coordinates the Commission's work and runs Better Regulation), the Legal Service, DG HR (human resources), DG BUDG (budget), DG DIGIT (informatics), the Office for Infrastructure and Logistics in Brussels (OIB) and Luxembourg (OIL), and the Publications Office. Two services with substantial vocational profiles sit in Luxembourg: Eurostat (statistics) and the Office for Infrastructure and Logistics. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) operates from six sites — Ispra (Italy, the largest), Geel (Belgium), Karlsruhe (Germany), Petten (Netherlands), Sevilla (Spain), and Brussels — and recruits researchers across nuclear safety, materials, and applied science. Six executive agencies (CINEA, ERCEA, EISMEA, HaDEA, REA, EACEA) manage Commission funding programmes from Brussels.

Hiring landscape over the last 12 months

Across the snapshot used to build this page, the Commission has 58 vacancies advertised on the EU Careers portal as currently active. By contract type the split is heavily weighted toward contract agents (33 vacancies, primarily Function Group IV), followed by temporary staff (23 vacancies) and traineeships (2). By grade the most-recruited bands are FG IV (20 posts), FG III (8), AST-SC1 (7), AD5 (6), FG II (5), and AST1 (5), with smaller numbers at AD6, AD7, and AST3. AD9-and-above postings are scarce in this snapshot — a reminder that senior management posts at the Commission rotate slowly and are usually filled by promotion or transfer, not external recruitment.

By domain the busiest function is Information Technology (13 of 58 vacancies — IT business analysts, ICT specialists, and digital project officers across DG DIGIT, DG TAXUD, DG CNECT, and the executive agencies), followed by Support Staff (7), Budget and Finances (6), and Communication, Buildings and Supplies, and Science and Research at three each. Two vacancies sit explicitly under Defence (a DG DEFIS administrative assistant in Brussels and a Senior Programme Officer AD7 in Bucharest) — a small but visible signal of the Commission's growing defence-industry remit under the new College. By location, Brussels dominates with 35 vacancies, Luxembourg follows with 11, and the rest are scattered across Strasbourg (3), Bucharest (2), and one each in Tallinn, Berlin, Ispra, Valletta, and Sofia. Two posts are explicitly dual-station (Strasbourg and Tallinn). Three notable recent recruitments worth flagging: the Senior Programme Officer (AD7) and Senior Financial Officer (AD7) postings in Bucharest tied to the EU Anti-Fraud Office and post-accession funds; the AD5 Budget Officer in Brussels (rare entry-level AD generalist post outside an EPSO list); and the Coordinator for Inter-institutional Relations (FG IV) which sits in the Secretariat-General's relations with the Council and Parliament.

Salary realism by grade and duty station

Commission salaries are governed by the EU Staff Regulations and updated annually. Gross monthly basic salaries at step 1 of the 2024/2025 grid are: AD5 €6,153, AD7 €7,876, AD9 €10,083, AD12 €14,604; FG II €2,715, FG III €3,476, FG IV €4,449; AST1 €4,317. These figures are pre-tax (a Community tax of 8–45% applies in lieu of national income tax) and pre-correction-coefficient.

The correction coefficient adjusts salary to local cost-of-living against the Brussels reference (100.0). Because most Commission jobs are in Brussels or Luxembourg the published gross applies as-is to a large majority of staff. For the smaller share of posts elsewhere, the coefficient changes pay materially: an AD5 in Bucharest receives the AD5 base €6,153 multiplied by the Romania coefficient of 64.5 (so roughly €3,969 gross monthly basic) — but with the same expatriation allowance (16% if applicable), household allowance, dependent-child allowance, and education allowance the package on a Romania posting is competitive against the local market. An AD7 in Strasbourg sits at base 100.0 (€7,876) plus the same allowances. A Luxembourg AST-SC1 hire is paid against coefficient 100.0. Newly recruited contract agents at FG IV step 1 in Brussels gross €4,449 — which is roughly the equivalent of a Belgian senior-officer post in the federal civil service after taxes.

Two nuances candidates often miss. First, the basic-pay grid moves with steps every two years (in most grades), so an AD7 staying in grade reaches step 5 at €8,911 within roughly eight years; salary growth comes principally from step progression and from grade promotions, which on the AD track typically take place every three to five years through the annual promotion exercise. Second, the expatriation allowance (16%) and the foreign-residence allowance (4% for those who lived in the duty country before recruitment) are mutually exclusive, and rules on whether each applies hinge on the candidate's residency and nationality history in the five years before recruitment — applicants moving from Brussels to Brussels for a new contract may discover they no longer qualify for expatriation.

Languages and competition profile

The Commission's working languages are English, French, and German, but in practice English dominates internal correspondence in most DGs. French remains heavily used in the Secretariat-General, the Legal Service, and certain DGs (particularly AGRI and the executive offices). German shows up most in budgetary, customs, and translation contexts. Strong working knowledge of two EU languages is the regulatory minimum for AD and FG roles; most successful candidates have three.

The principal feeder for permanent officials is EPSO (the European Personnel Selection Office). The flagship route is the AD5 generalist competition, run roughly every two years, with cycles for Public Administration, Law, Audit, Economics, and other profiles. Specialist AD competitions (digital, statistics, science, security, etc.) are run on demand. AST competitions are rarer and AST-SC competitions run periodically for assistant and secretarial roles. The CAST Permanent process is the gateway for contract agent positions across function groups — a continuous pool from which DGs select candidates. The EU Careers portal also publishes EU-Talent profiles and direct vacancy notices that bypass EPSO for temporary agent and seconded national expert posts.

Application paths

There are five main routes into the Commission. Permanent official: pass an EPSO open competition, get on the laureate list, then secure an offer from a recruiting DG within the list's validity (typically two years, extendable). Contract agent: register on CAST Permanent in the relevant function group and profile, then apply to direct vacancy notices that reference the CAST pool. Temporary agent: respond to specific vacancy notices on the EU Careers portal — these bypass EPSO and are typically issued for fixed-term posts in specialised functions or executive agencies. Seconded National Expert (SNE): national civil servants applying through their home administration to fill defined roles for typically 2–4 years on home-country pay terms. Traineeship: the Blue Book Traineeship runs twice yearly (March and October cohorts) for recent graduates, paid roughly €1,400/month for five months.

For candidates who already hold an EPSO laureate-list place but have not been selected, the practical reality is that recruiting DGs interview many laureates and offer to a smaller fraction; persistence and targeted outreach to relevant unit heads matter. For contract agent applicants on the CAST list, the same applies even more strongly — visibility on the list is necessary but not sufficient, and the DG-specific vacancy notice is where the actual selection happens.