News

7. 12. 20128:59

How to get the internship within the EU institutions?

On Thursday, 6 December 2012, the Eurocentre Prague organized a seminar about possibilities of internships within the EU institutions, which attracted high attendance and extraordinary interest especially of students at Czech universities.

The lecture given by Natálie Vlková (European Commission Representation in the Czech Republic) and Natalie Šťastná (European Parliament Information Office) was very practically oriented and provided the visitors with a comprehensive overview of the different types of internships in both institutions - there are paid and unpaid internships, focused generally, on translating and interpreting, or special internships for people with disabilities - and the specific requirements – concerning age, education and other skills which a successful candidate has to meet.

An important piece of information was about the technical procedure for the submission of applications, which should be filled in carefully both in the online application and in paper version. The formal requirements are very important and must not be underestimated. Most interns come to Brussels or Strasbourg, but you can apply for an internship at the European Commission or European Parliament representations in every EU member state. The discussion concerned practical questions regarding selection procedure which has several specifics and takes place twice a year, well in advance before the beginning of the internship. There were also questions how to increase your chances and how to respond properly to an answer from the selected institution.

The presentations (in Czech), which include not only useful links and interesting statistical data, but also important deadlines in the selection process for the next internship period, can be downloaded in PDF format from the website of the Eurocentre Prague, section Pravidelné semináře.