European Commission - Paid Traineeship (March 2025 session)

What does a trainees daily work consist of?

• Attending and organising meetings, working groups, forums, public hearings
• Researching and compiling documentation, reports, consultations, answering queries
• Running projects

What do we expect from you?

• Openess to European issues
• Interest in learning about Commission working methods
• Willingness to work in a multicultural environment
• Contribution to everyday work with a fresh point of view
• Proactive attitude

Please do not wait until the last moment to submit your application!

Technical problems cannot be forseen and could prevent your application from reaching us in time. The application platform closes automatically at the given time and cannot be reopened.

Once the application period has closed

Once the application period has closed, candidates are evaluated anonymously by two independent evaluators and get points on the basis of the following criteria, in the following order of relevance:

• Level of education (minimum – 'bachelor' or equivalent);
• Level of knowledge of one of the three European Commission working/procedural languages (EN, FR, DE);
• Level of knowledge of any other of the official/working languages of the EU as well as in any other European or non-EU languages, if any;

All candidates must declare 1 mother tongue; no points are awarded for mother tongue and therefore no proof is required. You can declare up to 3 mother tongues. If you have more than 1 mother tongue and wish to receive points for them, you can declare these in "Other languages" as long as you can provide written documented proof.

• Relevant work experience, if any; Please note that traineeships carried out in the framework of academic studies will not be taken into account.

• International profile (education/work/volunteering abroad, mobility, aptitude to work in an international atmosphere), if any;
• Motivation and quality of reasoning;
• Rare domains of studies
• Papers and publications, if any.

If you pass the first phase successfully, you will be requested to upload all your supporting documents in a single PDF file. These supporting documents will then be verified. 

About European Commission

The European Commission (EC) is the executive branch of the European Union, responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the EU treaties and managing the day-to-day business of the EU. Commissioners swear an oath at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg City, pledging to respect the treaties and to be completely independent in carrying out their duties during their mandate. Unlike in the Council of the European Union, where members are directly and indirectly elected, and the European Parliament, where members are directly elected, the Commissioners are proposed by the Council of the European Union, on the basis of suggestions made by the national governments, and then appointed by the European Council after the approval of the European Parliament.

This EU institution operates as a cabinet government, with 28 members of the Commission (informally known as "commissioners"). There is one member per member state, but members are bound by their oath of office to represent the general interest of the EU as a whole rather than their home state. One of the 28 is the Commission President (currently Jean-Claude Juncker) proposed by the European Council and elected by the European Parliament. The Council of the European Union then nominates the other 27 members of the Commission in agreement with the nominated President, and the 28 members as a single body are then subject to a vote of approval by the European Parliament. The current Commission is the Juncker Commission, which took office in late 2014, following the European Parliament elections in May of the same year.

The term Commission is variously used, either in the narrow sense of the 28-member College of Commissioners (or College) or to also include the administrative body of about 32,000 European civil servants who are split into departments called directorates-general and services. The procedural languages of the Commission are English, French and German. The Members of the Commission and their "cabinets" (immediate teams) are based in the Berlaymont building in Brussels.