Traineeships in the European Parliament (Robert Schuman Traineeships) - October 2024 -28 February 2025

Traineeships for university graduates are intended to enable trainees to build on the knowledge they acquired during their studies and to familiarise themselves with the activities of the European Union and, in particular, the European Parliament.

Three types of traineeships are available:

• the general option, open to any candidate who meets the criteria.
• the journalism option: candidates must provide proof of professional experience, as evidenced either by works published, or by membership of an association of journalists in an EU Member State, or by a qualification in journalism recognised in the EU Member States or in the applicant countries.
• the Sakharov Prize option: This traineeship programme aims to enhance trainees' knowledge of the European Parliament's human rights work and international human rights standards. It is aimed at candidates with a particular interest in human rights.

About European Parliament

The European Parliament (EP) is the legislative branch of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the European Commission and the Council of the European Union ('the Council', which should not be confused with the European Council and the non-EU Council of Europe organisation) it exercises the tripartite legislative function of the European Union. The Parliament is composed of 751 members(MEPs), intended to become 705 starting from the 2019–2024 legislature because of specific provisions adopted about Brexit, who represent the second-largest democratic electorate in the world (after the Parliament of India) and the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world (375 million eligible voters in 2009).

Since 1979, it has been directly elected every five years by European Union citizens, using universal suffrage. Voter turnout for parliamentary elections has decreased at each election after 1979 until 2019, when the voter turnout increased by 8 percentage points and went above 50% for the first time since 1994. Voting age is 18 in all member states except Malta and Austria, where it is 16, and Greece, where it is 17.

Although the European Parliament has legislative power, as does the Council, it does not formally possess legislative initiative (which is the prerogative of the European Commission), as most national parliaments of European Union member states do. The Parliament is the "first institution" of the EU (mentioned first in the treaties, having ceremonial precedence over all authority at European level), and shares equal legislative and budgetary powers with the Council (except in a few areas where the special legislative procedures apply). It likewise has equal control over the EU budget. Finally, the European Commission, the executive body of the EU (it exercises executive powers, but no legislative ones other than legislative initiative), is accountable to Parliament. In particular, Parliament can decide whether or not to approve the European Council's nominee for the President of the Commission, and it is further tasked with approving (or rejecting) the appointment of the Commission as a whole. It can subsequently force the Commission as a body to resign by adopting a motion of censure.