COM/AD/108/2026: The Commission's AD5 Internal Competition for Administrators

The European Commission has published an internal competition at grade AD5, COM/AD/108/2026, Administrators (AD5). It offers serving staff a route into the AD function group, or up from it, without sitting an external EPSO open competition. The Commission is looking for 100 successful candidates for the reserve list, and applications close on 30 June 2026 at 12.00 (midday), Brussels time.

It also uses the redesigned exam format the Commission has now settled on for its internal competitions. The familiar EPSO reasoning battery is replaced at stage one by an adaptive cognitive assessment run by an outside psychometric provider, and the rest of the procedure runs as a sequence of eliminatory stages. If you want the wider context for why these tests keep changing, the EPSOlution reform is the backdrop. The most common mistake is preparing for the test people remember rather than the one that now exists.

This article draws on the official notice of competition and on the analysis circulated by the staff association Generation 2004. One rule applies throughout: the official notice is the only binding source. Where a figure decides your eligibility, confirm it there.

What the reserve list actually gives you

COM/AD/108/2026 is internal, so it is open only to people already employed by the Commission, and it is built to constitute a reserve list from which the Commission may recruit administrators at grade AD5. AD5 is the entry grade of the administrator career stream. The notice describes the work as supporting decision-making in fulfilling the Commission's goals: drafting and analysing policies, implementing projects and programmes, coordinating across departments, engaging with stakeholders, performing audit and communication activities, and managing human and financial resources.

The competition produces a reserve list of 100 successful candidates. Be clear about what that list does. It gives you the right to be considered for AD5 posts. It does not hand you a job. Recruiting services draw from the list and run their own steps afterwards, and inclusion confers no right to or guarantee of recruitment. The list is valid until 31 December of the second year following the year of publication, and the Appointing Authority may extend it.

One hundred places is a hard, eliminatory target. Because the format is relatively new, more candidates fall out on avoidable errors than on raw ability. The strategic goal is simple to state: get onto the list of 100.

Who can apply

Eligibility for an internal competition is about your current standing inside the Commission, not nationality and diplomas in the abstract. You must meet all the general and specific criteria on the application deadline.

Status, function group and time served

On the deadline for applications, you must:

• be a temporary agent in the AD function group, or an official or temporary agent in grade AST3 or above, or a contract agent in grade FGIV in the Commission; and
• have served at least the last six full consecutive months prior to the deadline in one of those categories (or a combination of them); and
• have served at least the last 12 full consecutive months prior to the deadline as an official, temporary agent or contract agent in the Commission (or a combination).

For contract agents only, in addition to the above, you must have served for at least 36 full months — which do not have to be consecutive — as an official, temporary agent or contract agent in the Commission.

Periods spent in agencies or other institutions, and time as an interim agent, member of the auxiliary or local staff, or as a seconded national expert, are not counted. A grade awarded during a secondment is also disregarded for eligibility.

Qualifications

On the deadline you must demonstrate one of the following:

• a level of education corresponding to completed university studies of at least three years, attested by a diploma; or
• completion of the Commission certification programme under Article 45a of the Staff Regulations; or
• attested vocational training of a level equivalent to a university degree.

Note the contrast with the AD7 internal competition COM/AD/107/2026: at AD5 the notice asks for the qualification alone, without the additional years of relevant professional experience that AD7 requires. That makes the eligibility door wider at AD5. Only diplomas awarded in EU Member States, or covered by an equivalence certificate issued by a Member State authority, are taken into account.

The advice that gets repeated most often still holds: file a clean, evidenced application. The Selection Board decides eligibility solely on the information in the application form, substantiated by the supporting documents you attach — it has no access to your Sysper file, including your diplomas. Attach everything required, enter your dates cleanly, and submit before the deadline.

Languages

You must know at least two official EU languages: a thorough knowledge of one (minimum C1) and a satisfactory knowledge of another (minimum B2). In the application you must choose English, French or German as your language of competition (language 2). That language is used for the cognitive reasoning assessment and for every test in the competition, and it must be different from your main or first language as recorded in Sysper.

Where to find the notice, and why it is not on EUR-Lex

There is no Official Journal or EUR-Lex notice for this competition, and that is normal. Competitions with the COM/AD/ prefix are internal Commission competitions run by DG HR for serving staff; only open competitions carrying the EPSO/AD/ prefix appear on EUR-Lex. The binding notice is issued as a Commission administrative notice and made available to eligible staff through internal channels — My IntraComm and the Single Candidate Portal, where it is attached to the application itself. If you are eligible, open the notice while logged in.

The stages, and how the funnel works

The competition is based on qualifications and tests, and runs in the following stages:

1. First eligibility checks, including the cognitive reasoning assessment
2. Computer-based multiple-choice (MCQ) test on EU knowledge
3. Written test
4. Final eligibility check (qualifications)
5. Oral test
6. Reserve list

The MCQ and written test take place online, on the same day. You clear one stage to reach the next.

Stage 1: the cognitive reasoning assessment

This is the first hurdle and the least familiar. An external company specialising in psychometric tests assesses your general cognitive ability across numerical, inductive and deductive reasoning — 24 questions in 36 minutes, in your language of competition. The assessment is adaptive, and the outcome is expressed as a percentile against a benchmark population of university graduates with several years of professional experience. You must place at or above the 60th percentile to go further.

A few things follow from the design. There is no advantage in outguessing the room — your job is to perform to your own ceiling against the benchmark. The item families rhyme with EPSO: numerical items reward careful reading of the problem; inductive items lean on pattern recognition; deductive items are text-heavy and reward close reading. Training for an adaptive, tightly timed setting — where concentration decides the result — matters as much as the underlying skill.

Stage 2: the MCQ on EU knowledge

A computer-based multiple-choice test of 30 questions in 30 minutes, in your language of competition, with a pass mark of 15/30. It assesses knowledge of the EU institutional setup, the Commission's roles and powers under the treaties, its governance, decision-making and procedures, and its policy priorities. Guidance and sample questions are shared on the competition's dedicated page on Staff Centre before the test. Unlike the AD7 competition, where this element was uncertain, the EU-knowledge MCQ is confirmed for AD5 — and it is the most learnable stage in the procedure.

Stage 3: the written test

A written assignment — for example a briefing, letter or note — built from a set of supplied documents, with a maximum duration of 90 minutes and a pass mark of 30/50. It tests two general competencies: critical thinking, analysing and creative problem-solving, and written communication.

Two gateways control who actually gets marked. Your written test is assessed only if you pass the MCQ and score among the highest in the MCQ, up to 2.5 times the number of successful candidates sought. This stage rewards a rehearsed, dependable structure deployed at speed far more than it rewards inspiration: a logical flow, tight writing without padding, clean presentation, and a product fitted to its intended reader and purpose.

Stage 4: final eligibility check (qualifications)

If you obtain the pass mark and one of the highest scores in the written test, the Selection Board verifies your qualifications against the criteria above, before inviting you to the oral. Checks are done in descending order of score until the number of eligible candidates reaches 1.5 times the number sought.

Stage 5: the oral test

An oral presentation on a subject related to EU institutions, policies and procedures, followed by a question-and-answer session, plus a structured interview — maximum 60 minutes, pass mark 25/50, conducted online. It evaluates your motivation and five general competencies: intrapreneurship, learning as a skill, oral communication, self-management, and working together. For internal candidates this is the moment to turn real working experience into demonstrated competence — reasoning out loud, presenting and defending a position, and showing the behaviours expected of an AD5 administrator.

Stage 6: the reserve list

The Selection Board draws up a reserve list of up to 100 candidates, from those who pass the oral and score among the highest. Candidates are listed alphabetically and informed individually; the list is published in the Administrative Notices.

How to prepare — and how EPSOHQ maps to each stage

Because the funnel is eliminatory and front-loaded, put the cognitive reasoning preparation first, then the EU-knowledge MCQ and the written assignment, and finally the oral. Here is how the EPSOHQ modules line up against the four tested stages.

For the cognitive reasoning assessment

The external provider's adaptive format is not identical to the standard EPSO computer-based test, but the skills it measures — numerical, inductive and deductive reasoning — are the same families the platform drills, so the practice carries over.

• The 1:1 exam simulator reproduces the timed, sterile feel of the real test, which matters because composure under a tight clock is half the battle; there is a free simulation to try.
• The Methodology Library lays out a four-step pipeline — learn concepts, recognise templates, practise under pressure, then target weaknesses — which fits an adaptive format where steady accuracy beats memorised tricks.
• Underneath sit the 14 mathematical foundations and the recurring question templates for the numerical items, the abstract reasoning patterns for the inductive items, and the verbal reasoning concepts for the deductive, text-heavy items.
• The Daily Challenge keeps your speed sharp with a short timed round each day.

Aim for steady strong performance, not merely passable: the bar is the 60th percentile, there is no negative marking, and nothing should be left blank.

For the EU-knowledge MCQ

This is the most learnable stage, and targeted study yields the highest score gains. The EU Knowledge Database covers exactly the ground the test draws on — institutions, treaties, the ordinary legislative procedure, the budget and MFF, the four freedoms, external relations, agencies, competition, social policy, green transition, digital policy and current affairs — across 22 structured chapters, with flashcards for fast recall. Three chapters are free; the rest open with a free account.

For the written test

The Written Test Guide is the most relevant resource: it covers the five marking anchors assessors actually use, a preparation calendar, realistic timed practice, and a 90-minute execution plan that matches this stage's clock exactly. Because COM/AD/108/2026 is a generalist administrator profile, the chapters on project and programme management and on political affairs and EU policies sit closest to what the assignment is likely to ask. The video courses cover the same ground in lecture form.

For the oral test

The oral is competency-based, so build a bank of concrete examples from your own work that map onto the five competencies — intrapreneurship, learning as a skill, oral communication, self-management and working together. The STAR method quick-reference in the Written Test Guide appendices gives you a structure for the structured-interview answers, and the EU Knowledge Database is the source material for a presentation on EU institutions, policies and procedures. Practise saying your reasoning out loud against the clock.

Free orientation: the Generation 2004 webinar

Generation 2004, with Yasemos Europeos, ran a free info session for the AD5 internal competition on 12 June 2026 (12:30–13:30 CET) covering how to fill in the application and how to tackle each part of the exam, including lessons learnt from the AD7 internal cognitive test. If you missed it, watch their internal competitions hub for recordings and follow-up study groups. Useful as it is, it is a proxy — the binding text is the official notice.

The bottom line

COM/AD/108/2026 is a genuine opening at the entry grade of the administrator stream, with a reserve list of 100 and a notably wide eligibility door — temporary agents in the AD group, officials and temporary agents at AST3 or above, and FGIV contract agents, with no extra experience requirement beyond the qualification. It is a redesigned, four-test procedure led by an adaptive, percentile-scored cognitive assessment, then an EU-knowledge MCQ, a 90-minute written assignment, and an oral. The colleagues who do best will be the ones who filed meticulous, evidenced applications before the 30 June 2026 deadline, and who trained for the test that exists now.

Ready to start? Try the free simulation, open the EU Knowledge Database, and begin structured preparation.

EPSOHQ is an independent training platform. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected to the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) or any EU institution. All figures in this article should be confirmed against the official notice of competition.