Commission warned over age limits

Date: 13/07/2000

By John Shelley

EU OMBUDSMAN Jacob Soderman has given the Commission four months to prove that it intends to fulfil a two-year-old pledge to abolish maximum age limits for EU job applicants.

The Commission promised to scrap rules which bar people aged over 45 from taking its entrance competitions as part of an agreement reached with Soderman in 1998. "The Commission said it was going to abolish age limits then, but so far absolutely nothing concrete appears to have happened," said an aide to the Ombudsman.

Since then, Soderman has continued to receive complaints from people angry that they are denied access to Union jobs simply because of their age and irrespective of their skills.

If the EU executive fails to set firm dates for action by October, the Ombudsman is likely to prepare a special report on the issue for MEPs so that they can decide what action to take. Soderman's office says the current rules may also breach the Union's discrimination rules, raising the prospect that a disgruntled applicant could complain to the European Court of Justice.

After the Ombudsman first launched an inquiry into age limits in recruitment in 1997, the Commission agreed to raise the ceiling from 35 to 45 - and committed itself to the principal of abolishing age limits altogether.

The Commission is not alone in restricting the age of its applicants - the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament apply the same rules. But Soderman hopes that targeting the Commission, which arranges cross-institution competitions as well as internal concours, will force the others to fall into line.

A Commission spokesman said the institution was committed to abolishing age restrictions and was "moving as fast as it could", but added that attempts to lift the restrictions were being hampered by opposition from other EU institutions.

EU Ombudsman Jacob Söderman has given the Commission four months to prove that it intends to fulfil a two-year-old pledge to abolish maximum age limits for EU joc applicants.