COM/AD/108/2026: the AD5 generalist internal competition

Last checked against sources: 26 October 2026. This is the Commission's internal competition, not EPSO's open AD5 competition (for that, see EPSO/AD/427/26). The notice is on the Commission's intranet only, so the facts below come from vendors and a staff union that quote it, and each carries a label: reported or estimated.

Status at a glance

Who could apply

As reported by EPSOHQ, the competition was open to temporary agents in AD, to officials and temporary agents at AST3 or above, and to contract agents in function group IV. Candidates needed their last six full consecutive months in those categories and their last twelve in the Commission; contract agents needed 36 months in total. The qualification was a degree of at least three years, the Commission's certification programme, or equivalent vocational training, with no experience requirement, plus C1 in one language and B2 in another. No applicant count has been published.

The EU knowledge test

Thirty four-option questions in 30 minutes, sat online in language 2, which must differ from the main language recorded in Sysper (reported). In the 2026 competitions, the Commission's guidance to candidates has described a forward-only screen: questions answered in order, no going back, and no moving on without choosing an option. A wrong answer scores zero, the same as a blank.

Passing at 15/30 is not the real bar. Only the highest scorers, up to 2.5 times the 100 places, have their written test marked (reported). No score distribution has been published; we estimate that a top-250 rank sits somewhere in the low to mid 20s out of 30, a weak estimate that depends on how many sit. How scoring and the 2.5x rule work explains the arithmetic, and AD vs AST timing the difference from AST3's 40 minutes.

When the test is sat

No public source gives the date of the knowledge test and written test, and we do not give one. A Commission staff union reports that HR has committed to announce each test at least two weeks before it takes place, and the invitation comes through the candidate portal. An indicative timeline shared with candidates in July placed the oral in December 2026 or January 2027 (reported by EU Training). Sample questions and guidance were said to be on the competition's Staff Centre page (reported by EPSOHQ).

What is in scope: the content cut-off

The 2026 rule, from the Commission's guidance to candidates, is publicly available official EU sources only, and nothing published after the application period opened. The AD5 notice was published on 29 May 2026 (reported), so we estimate the cut-off at that date; the AD5 version of the guidance has not been seen in public.

That date matters both ways. COM(2026) 380 of 28 April 2026, which lets the 12-week standard public consultation be reduced by up to six weeks where other consultations run for the same initiative, is inside AD5's scope but was not inside AD7's. Omnibus XI and XII (24 June 2026) and the customs reform adopted on 16 September 2026 came later and should not appear. The content cut-off guide has the full comparison, and the source register can be filtered to this competition.

After the knowledge test

The written test is sat the same day: up to 90 minutes, pass 30/50 (reported). Qualifications are then checked in descending order of score until 1.5 times the places are eligible, and an online oral of up to 60 minutes passes at 25/50. Up to 100 names go on the reserve list, in alphabetical order, valid until 31 December of the second year after the list's publication, and a place on it is the right to be considered for posts, not a job (reported by EPSOHQ).

If you are aiming at the next competition

The next generalist competitions with the same test are COM/AD/111/2026 (AD6) and COM/AST/112/2026 (AST2), which close on 30 October 2026 (reported). Their cognitive gate comes first; epsoshlprep.com offers practice for it. Our free 30-question test runs on the Commission's forward-only rules with AD or AST timing, in English, French or German. The format is explained in how the EU knowledge test works, and changes to our pages are logged in the corrections log.