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Traineeships

Blue Book traineeship programme.

This site is available in English, French and German – the three working languages of the European Commission.

About the traineeship

The European Commission proposes 2 types of traineeship: an Administrative Traineeship or a Translation Traineeship with the Directorate-General for Translation (DGT).

The traineeship programme is open to all eligible candidates whatever their citizenship, regardless of their sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, religion or belief, membership of a national minority, disability, age or sexual orientation. You can find more about equal opportunities on this page.

Trainees work all over the European Commission, its services and agencies, mostly in Brussels, but also in Luxembourg and elsewhere across the European Union.

Subsequent career opportunities may vary between these different entities.

The nature of your work will depend on the service you are assigned to.

You may, for example, work in the field of competition law, human resources, environmental policy, translation, etc.

What does a trainee's daily work consist of?

  • Attending and organising meetings, working groups, and public hearings
  • Researching, drafting and editing documentation – including reports and consultations
  • Answering citizens’ inquiries
  • Supporting the management of projects
  • Translating, revising translations or researching terminology

What do we expect from you?

  • An open-minded approach to European issues
  • An interest in learning about the Commission’s working methods
  • Willingness to work in a multicultural environment
  • To contribute to the Commission’s daily work from a fresh perspective
  • A proactive attitude

Scientific traineeships are also available at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC).

General questions

Commission employees work 40 hours a week, 8 hours per day.

Official working hours are 8:00 - 19:00.

The minimum lunch break is 20 minutes.

Your actual working hours will depend on your unit and your workload – please check with your adviser when you arrive.

The core hours when all staff is required to be available for interaction with other colleagues are 9:30 - 12:00 and 15:00 - 16:30 (15:00 - 16:00 on Wednesday and Friday).

Leave requests should be approved.

Yes. You can apply for as many sessions as you want.

The Junior Professionals Programme (JPP) is a Commission programme, aimed at better integrating junior staff working at the Commission into EU civil service, including a selection based on an assessment on the job and pre-selection by Commission DGs or Executive Agencies. 

Eligible candidates shall have a maximum of 3 years of professional experience, and working at the European Commission or in an Executive Agency at the time of the closing of the present call.

Blue Book trainees from the Commission DGs and Executive Agencies, provided they fulfil the eligibility criteria set out in the call for expressions of interest (e.g. maximum years of work experience), are eligible to join the JPP. 

Staff and Blue Book trainees from Institutions or Bodies other than the Commission and the Executive Agencies do not fall under the scope of this programme.  

For this reason, Blue Book trainees from decentralized agencies and other Institutions are not eligible for the programme. The full list of Commission DGs and Executive Agencies included in the JPP scheme is available at the following link.

Nevertheless, Blue Book trainees who are not eligible for the JPP programme can still find other career opportunities on the following sites: 

Career opportunities at the Commission are presented on the EPSO website

The working/procedural languages of the European Commission are English, French and German.