Article 3
1. Officials and temporary staff occupying a post in an organisational entity which is transferred from the General Secretariat of the Council or the Commission to the European External Action Service (EEAS) pursuant to Decision 2010/427/EU shall be deemed to be transferred to the EEAS from the relevant institutions at the date laid down in Article 7 of that Decision. This shall apply mutatis mutandis to contract and local staff assigned to such an organisational entity, for whom the conditions of the contract shall remain unchanged. The Appointing Authority of the Council or of the Commission, as the case may be, shall inform in advance the staff concerned by such a transfer. 2. With the agreement of the High Representative and of the national diplomatic service concerned, the contracts of temporary staff from national diplomatic services of the Member States who were engaged, or whose contract was amended, after 30 November 2009 and who occupy a post in an organisational entity which is transferred from the General Secretariat of the Council or the Commission to the EEAS pursuant to Decision 2010/427/EU shall be transformed, without a new selection procedure, into contracts under point(e) of Article 2 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants. For the rest, the conditions of the contract shall remain unchanged. 3. Until 30 June 2013 and by way of derogation from Article 7 of the Staff Regulations, officials and other servants of the General Secretariat of the Council or of the Commission exercising technical support functions for the EEAS may, after having been heard, be transferred to the EEAS by common agreement of the institutions concerned, in full respect of the prerogatives of the budgetary authority. This transfer shall take effect on the date determined in the relevant budgetary Decision providing for the corresponding posts and appropriations in the EEAS. 4. In accordance with Article 27 of the Staff Regulations and the first subparagraph of Article 12(1), and Article 82 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants, recruitment or engagement shall be directed to securing for the EEAS the services of officials and temporary staff of the highest standard of ability, efficiency and integrity, recruited on the broadest possible geographical basis from among nationals of Member States of the Union. This shall apply to the EEAS as a whole and to its various staff components, including temporary staff referred to in point(e) of Article 2 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants. In addition, the staff of the EEAS shall comprise an appropriate and meaningful presence of nationals from all the Member States. 5. In accordance with Article 1d(2) and (3) of the Staff Regulations, the High Representative shall take appropriate measures to promote equal opportunities for the under-represented gender in certain function groups, more particularly in the AD function group. 6. In order to guarantee adequate representation of staff from national diplomatic services in the EEAS, the High Representative shall decide that, by way of derogation from Article 29 and from the first subparagraph of Article 98(1) of the Staff Regulations, priority may be given until 30 June 2013 for certain posts in the AD function group in the EEAS to candidates from national diplomatic services of the Member States in the case of equivalent qualifications.