Brussels has a problem: it cannot persuade enough graduates from northern Europe to join its ranks. New figures from the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) show that while southern Europeans queue up for EU careers, their counterparts in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark are largely staying away. The imbalance threatens the EU institutions' goal of a geographically balanced workforce and raises questions about whether Brussels can compete with the pull of national labour markets.
According to the latest data, the European Commission employs around 33,000 administrators, but only 1,370 are German and 380 are Dutch. Sweden has 264, while Denmark and Finland each have fewer than 200. As the current generation of eurocrats retires, there is little sign of a northern European renewal.
EPSO's 2026 AD5 generalist competition attracted 174,727 applicants, but the distribution is stark. Italy alone produced 79,343 candidates — nearly half the total — while Germany, the EU's most populous member state, generated just 11,699. Sweden registered 1,804, and Denmark fewer than 1,000.
Why northern graduates stay home
The reasons are not hard to find. In Germany, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, recent graduates enjoy some of the best employment prospects in the EU. Eurostat data for 2025 show that 90.6% of German graduates and 90.1% of Dutch graduates were in work, compared with an EU average of 83%. Sweden also exceeds 90%.
Private-sector opportunities are particularly strong in Germany, where graduates in engineering, finance, law and economics can command starting salaries of €55,000 to €70,000 gross per year. The public sector is also competitive: German graduates can enter on the A13 salary scale, with basic monthly pay of €4,500 to €5,300 or more, plus job security, pensions and healthcare support.
By contrast, a newly recruited EU official at AD5 level earns approximately €4,749 net per month, rising to around €5,734 with an expatriation allowance. That is not enough to lure many northern Europeans through EPSO's lengthy selection process, which can take months and does not guarantee a job even if you make the reserve list.
Monika Hohlmeier, a German MEP from the centre-right EPP, argues that the EU needs to act. "Ideally, we would like each member state to be represented proportionally across all EU institutions," she said. "The Commission should consider launching competitions specifically for underrepresented member states." She also noted that in many sectors "EU salaries are lower" than what graduates can earn at home.
Working conditions matter too. Denmark's standard full-time week is typically 37 hours, and Sweden and Germany offer generous leave, parental benefits and strong employment protections. EU institutions provide similar perks, but joining them means adapting to a different administrative culture and often working in a second or third language. Add the cost of housing in Brussels, the loss of professional networks and the disruption to family life, and the appeal fades further.
Southern Europeans see a lifeline
The picture is very different in southern Europe, where weak job markets and stagnant wages make Brussels look like a haven. Eurostat figures for 2025 show that only 71.8% of Italian graduates and 62.4% of Greek graduates were employed, well below the EU average. Spain's unemployment rate was the highest in the EU at 10.5%, and wages there remained 2% below early-2021 levels in the first quarter of 2026.
Italy is a prime example. The OECD found that Italian wages were still 6.1% below their early-2021 level in the first quarter of 2026 — the worst decline among major OECD economies. Young professionals face unpaid internships, temporary contracts and freelance arrangements with little protection. In Greece, 26.4% of the population spent at least 40% of disposable income on housing in 2025, compared with an EU average of 7.7%.
For graduates in these countries, an EU career offers a dramatic improvement. Entry-level public servants with university degrees in Italy, Spain and Greece earn between €780 and €1,800 net per month — far less than the roughly €4,749 available to a newly recruited AD5 official. The EU's generous benefits and job security are a powerful draw.
The result is a two-speed Europe of opportunity. While southern Europeans see Brussels as a route to stability, northern Europeans view it as a step down. Unless the EU addresses salary gaps, streamlines recruitment and markets itself better in the north, the imbalance is likely to persist. As Hohlmeier put it, "There is a need to align the salary structure and entry-level pay grades with competitive rates that match market rates, especially in specialty areas such as IT, economics or law."
For now, the EU institutions risk becoming a club of the willing — but not of the northern European talent they say they want.
