Translation Traineeship (Blue Book)

Benefits & funding

• Five months of paid work inside the Commission’s translation service; the living allowance is a monthly grant adjusted to the trainee’s place of assignment.
• Trainees may also be entitled to a travel allowance and a meal and public transport allowance, depending on their circumstances.
• Around 1,000 traineeship positions are offered per session across all strands, with translation making up roughly 5% of the posts available across the Commission and its agencies.
• Placements are mainly in Luxembourg and Brussels.
• The official pages describe the grant but do not publish its amount; applicants should confirm the figure with the Traineeships Office before accepting an offer.

Eligibility

• Open to nationals of European Union Member States. A valid passport or national identity card matching the declared nationality is required.
• Applicants must be 18 or older on the starting date of the traineeship.
• A completed higher-education degree at EQF level 6 or higher, worth at least 180 ECTS credits and covering at least three academic years. The diploma must already be obtained when the application is submitted.
• Degrees earned outside the EU are accepted when they represent a completed three-year higher-education cycle.
• Target language: one official EU language, normally the applicant’s mother tongue.
• First source language: English, French or German at C1 or C2, or as a mother tongue.
• Second source language: another official EU language at B2 or above, or as a mother tongue.
• Anyone with more than 42 calendar days of prior or ongoing work, paid or unpaid, in any EU institution, body, agency, delegation or Member of the European Parliament’s office is excluded.
• Declared professional experience counts only from age 16 and only in blocks of at least 15 calendar days. Every qualification and experience declared must be evidenced.

Application process

1. 1
   Create an EU Login account using an email address that stays valid until the end of the traineeship.
2. 2
   Complete the online application form during the open registration period and select TRA as the traineeship type.
3. 3
   Merge every supporting document — education, language knowledge, identity, declared experience — into a single PDF and upload it.
4. 4
   Submit before the deadline. No further documents or corrections are accepted afterwards.
5. 5
   Wait for the eligibility check, which usually takes four to eight weeks after the deadline; candidates who pass enter the Virtual Blue Book.
6. 6
   In the Virtual Blue Book, write a general motivation text of 500 to 1,500 characters in the target language, then apply to up to three positions over three rounds, one per round, with a cover letter in the target language for each.
7. 7
   Accept the written placement offer issued by the Traineeships Office. Informal contact or an interview from a recruiting unit is not binding.

Program timeline

1. 22 July 2026

   Applications open for the March 2027 session

2. Application deadline

   4 September 2026, 10:00 Brussels time

3. Pre-selection

   September–October 2026

4. Selection

   November–December 2026

5. Traineeship starts

   1 March 2027

6. Traineeship ends

   31 July 2027