Hi everyone! I am Marloes Meijer, 24-years old and I am from the Netherlands. From 1 March 2023 to 31 July 2023, I am a Blue Book Trainee at the European Commission Representation in the Netherlands (DG COMM). Are you curious about all the things I do as a trainee? Read along!

I am from Twente, a region in the east of the Netherlands bordering the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Low Saxony. After graduating from high school, I studied German and German history in the Dutch cities of Zwolle, Utrecht and Amsterdam and went to the German city of Münster for my Erasmus exchange semester.

After my studies, my interest for the European cooperation and the work of the European Union remained. I found out that twice a year, the European Commission offers five-month traineeships to gain work experience within a Directorate-General (DG) or agency. A unique opportunity to discover the world of the EU. This does not mean that you can only gain work experience in Brussels, but in my case also in the Netherlands, in The Hague. At the beginning and at the end of your traineeship, you will visit Brussels and get to know many other Blue Book trainees.

As a trainee in the Representation in The Hague, I have the opportunity to gain work experience in three different departments: communication, press and politics. In practice, this means I get to work on the social media channels like Twitter and Instagram, compile the weekly newsletter, take notes on EU-related topics in Dutch Parliament, gather information for visits of Commissioners to the Netherlands and provide information about the European Union through workshops and guest lectures. Other fun things I got to do as a trainee were accompanying my colleagues of the Representation for a visit of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans to Enschede, Netherlands and participating in a regional training of EUROPE DIRECT centres in Amsterdam, Netherlands to exchange views about communication on Europe.

My traineeship gives me valuable insights on what the European Commission does. Not only from Brussels, but also in specific member states, in my case the Netherlands.