Frequently asked 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 hours when all staff is ...

No. You are responsible for your own possessions both inside and outside the Commission.
The Commission is not responsible for loss, theft or damage to property or ...

No. The Commission does not cover accommodation expenses.

Trainees can expect to pay on average between €700 – €1000 per month for accommodation (for a flat, studio, or a shared apartment).

In addition, be prepared to pay 1- or 2-months' rent as a ...

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 ...

Most Belgian banks offer free bank accounts to people under the age of 26.

Please check with your chosen bank to see if this is the case.

No. The documents are not stored in the application tool.

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

Yes, you may apply for all of them at the same time, but cannot accept them all; you will need to make a choice when the placement offer is sent. However, as soon as you complete more than 42 calendar days in any other European institution, European Union (EU) body, EU Agency, EU delegations, EU ...

Yes, for a maximum period of twelve months immediately after the traineeship (without interruption).

The costs and conditions applicable to this extension differ from the insurance during the traineeship. When submitting a claim, you will need to indicate the period of the extension of medical ...

No, Blue Book trainees are not allowed to provide business cards associating them with their Directorate-General or their European Commission email address.

As a general principle we would highly advise you to suspend any other remunerated activity during the traineeship period. The traineeship is a full-time experience and we encourage you to devote as much time as possible to it.

However, in order to determine whether your parallel remunerated ...

Under exceptional circumstances the trainee may submit a written request stating the relevant reasons and a proper justification for the interruption of his traineeship.

The Head of the Traineeships Office may – after consultation with the adviser and the DG/ Service/ Agency to which the trainee...

Yes, you can have both.

Yes, please check with your own insurance company if your insurance is valid for the whole period of your traineeship and for entire Europe. Find out about the conditions and rules for reimbursement of medical expenses as well as about the necessary procedures to be reimbursed.

Trainees based in...

Your leave requests should respect the needs of the Service. You should speak to your adviser and agree with him/her when you will take leave.

Yes, and we would appreciate if you could let the Traineeships Office know about your decision, together with your candidate number.

Deferrals are not possible, but you can always apply for a later session.

Only in exceptional cases: the Director General of the Directorate-General or Service in which a trainee has been placed may grant authorisation for a trainee to be sent on a mission, on the condition that the mission is of a technical nature and not of a representative one.

The mission must be ...

Trainees may be authorized to telework from a place other than their place of assignment for a maximum of 5 days for a 5-month traineeship.

If a trainee wishes to terminate his/her traineeship earlier than the date specified in the placement offer, he/she must inform his/her adviser and submit a written request to the Traineeships Office for approval.

This request should be sent by e-mail first to the adviser and/or the Head of ...