Traineeships at the Council of the European Union
Each year the General Secretariat of the Council (GSC) offers 4 types of traineeships at the Council of the European Union:
- paid,
- unpaid,
- traineeships reserved for students of national administration schools, and
- special programmes for trainees with a disability.
The Council of the European Union
The Council of the European Union is one of the main EU institutions. It negotiates and adopts legislative acts in most cases together with the European Parliament through the ordinary legislative procedure. Codecision is for policy areas where the EU has exclusive or competence in common with the member states. In these cases, the Council legislates on the basis of proposals submitted by the European Commission.
Above that, the EU Council also:
- Coordinates member states’ policies;
- Develops the EU’s common foreign and security policy;
- Concludes international agreements;
- Adopts the EU budget.
Traineeships at the Council of the European Union
Being a trainee at the Council of the European Union will give you the chance to get:
- first-hand experience of the work of the GSC;
- EU knowledge, insight into the processes and policies of the EU institutions;
- the opportunity to be part of the Council’s day-to-day business
- the opportunity to work in a multicultural, multilingual and multi-ethnic environment.
Find more information on the 4 types of traineeships: paid traineeships, compulsory unpaid traineeships, traineeships for students of national administration schools, and the positive action programme for trainees with a disability.
The tasks of trainees may include attending meetings, drafting minutes, carrying out preparatory work or research on a particular subject.
Can you apply?
Be conscious of the eligibility criteria:
- you need to be an EU citizen or coming from a candidate country that has concluded EU accession negotiations.
- you should have very good knowledge of at least two EU official languages. Given that English and French are used extensively for internal communication within the GSC, a good knowledge of English or French is required.
The majority of applicants have qualifications in law, political science, international relations, EU studies and economics but of course you can also be qualified in other fields, such as: translation, human resources, communication, education studies, computer sciences, graphic design, multimedia, agricultural technology, biochemical engineering, health and food safety, energy management, environment, aerospace engineering.
If you have already benefited from any kind of training (paid or unpaid) or employment for more than 6 weeks within an EU institution, body, agency or office you’re not eligible to apply.
Application
The traineeship at the Council of the European Union lasts 5 months, and the next round starts in September 2022. The deadline for application is on March 15th, 2022 at 12pm (Brussels time).
Read more
