BackThe European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, has told the European Commission to establish that it did not discriminate on the basis of age in the case of a successful candidate in a selection competition for assistants.
In 2008, the complainant was successful in a selection competition for assistants with English as their main language to work in the European institutions. She was put on the relevant reserve list. At that time, she was 63 years old. Between February and March 2009, the complainant was contacted by several Commission services concerning her possible recruitment as an official. She was not offered any posts.
In June 2009, the complainant turned to the Ombudsman, alleging that she had been a victim of age discrimination. The Ombudsman found that the Commission had indeed never explained why the recruitment of the complainant as an official came to a halt, nor why the complainant was not deemed suitable for recruitment as an official to carry out the same tasks she eventually carried out on one-week contracts. He asked the institution to prove that no age discrimination occurred in this case.
