‘Interim staff’, interims or ‘Intérimaire’ in French are short-term staff used by the European Commission, EU agencies and other EU institutions in periods of increased workloads or hiring gaps. Interim staff are not employees or staff members of EU institutions, but hires sent by third-party companies for work for EU institutions. “Intérimaires” have their employment contracts with these third-party companies but receive their tasks from staff members of EU institutions.

Contracts duration of ‘interim staff’ is usually up to 6 months but may also be for a longer period. While interim staff should nominally do secretarial and other support roles, they in practice often find themselves with FGIII, FGIV, and even AD5 tasks.

The use of ‘interims’ or temporary workers by EU institutions is sometimes criticized as unfairly using underpaid employees for fulfilling regular tasks of these institutions. On the positive side, serving as an interim gives the particular person significant advantages in councours for vacancies at that institution. It is common for interims to progress to contract agent status if their performance was good as temporary workers.

Read more about interim staff in EU institutions.