Internship: Paid Traineeship at the EU Council

Location: Brussels, Belgium

Dates: 1 February to 30 June (first period) and 1 September to 31 January (second period).

Participating countries: EU

Apply here: application form

Number of participants: 100

Organizer: General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union

Contact: traineeships@consilium.europa.eu, +32 22813677

Deadline to apply: 28 September 2020

Salary: non-paid

Traineeship at the EU Council

At a glance

The General Secretariat of the Council (GSC) offers around 100 paid traineeships a year to EU nationals who, by the deadline for submitting applications, have completed at least the first part of their university studies and have a degree certificate or equivalent.

Traineeships are split into 2 different periods, each lasting 5 months:

• 1 February to 30 June (first period)
• 1 September to 31 January (second period)

There are other types of traineeships at the Council, you can choose a traineeship which is of interest to you:

• Compulsory unpaid traineeships
• Traineeships for students of national administration schools
• Positive action programme for trainees with a disability

Application

Applications are open for a limited period, please see the Apply now box on the top of the page. You must apply using the online system. You do not need to send supporting documents when you make your online application. If you are offered a traineeship, you will need to supply them at that stage.

The Council receives a large number of applications. To avoid overloading the system, please don’t wait until the last day before submitting your application.

The application form is available in English and French. You must have a thorough knowledge of one of these two languages in order to apply.

Address in your profile

Please ensure you update your profile if your address changes. This address will be used both in the traineeship offer and for the administrative processing of your file, and will be considered as your place of recruitment.

Emails from the traineeships office or “Traineeship” often end up in the spam folder,  please check it regularly for incoming messages from “Traineeship”.

Selection procedure

First period selected candidates will be contacted in December at the latest, second period selected candidates will be contacted in June, at the latest.

Successful candidates

If you are successful, you will receive an offer by email stating the period of your traineeship and the department where you will work. You will be asked to supply certain documents by email to support the information in the application form.

You will not be admitted unless you supply the complete file. You will have to deliver proof for all information in your application form (education, professional experience, language knowledge). Therefore you should only include information in the application form for which you have supporting documents.

After verification of supporting documents, the traineeships office will send you a traineeship agreement for signature.

Unsuccessful candidates

The GSC receives many applications every year for the paid traineeships. Unfortunately, there are only 100 places available.

Unsuccessful candidates will be informed by email by the end of December (for traineeships starting in February) and by the end of June (for traineeships starting in September).

If you are interested in a future traineeship at the GSC and still satisfy the conditions for admission you can reapply for the next traineeship period.