Traineeships at the Court of Justice

Every year, the Court of Justice of the European Communities offers a limited number of paid traineeships of a maximum duration of five months. Traineeships are generally undertaken in the Research and Documentation Directorate, the Press and Information Service, the Directorate-General for Translation or the Interpretation Directorate.

Trainees are required to:

be citizens of a Member State of the EU;
have a university degree in Law or Political Science (law should be dominant) or, for traineeships in the Interpretation Directorate, a diploma in conference interpreting, if necessary complemented by a post-graduate diploma, or equivalent professional experience;
have a perfect knowledge of one of the official languages of the EU, and a good knowledge of a second. A good knowledge of French is however highly recommended.

Interpreting traineeships last from 10 to 12 weeks and are addressed to newly qualified conference interpreters whose language combination is of interest to the Interpretation Directorate.

The trainees have the possibility to perfect their interpreting skills, particularly in legal interpreting, through the preparation of case-files, terminological research, and practical exercises in a ‘silent booth’.

The grant paid is EUR 1 493.00 net per month.

A contribution of €150 towards travel costs is also made to paid trainees whose place of residence is located 200km or more from the seat of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

There are two traineeship periods:

- from 1 March to 31 July (applications to be made between 1 July and 15 September of each year),

- from 16 September to the end of February for the traineeships in the Members' chambers and 1 October to the end of February for the traineeships in the administrative departments (applications to be made between 1 February and 15 April of each year).