Ever thought of living and working in Brussels?

May 4, 2015 | People

Ever thought of living and working in Brussels?

May 4, 2015 | People

Ever thought of living and working in Brussels?

May 4, 2015 | People

Ireland South MEP Deirdre Clune has encouraged young Irish people to take full advantage of the fact that we are proficient English speakers by applying for an internship in the European Institutions,

“My understanding is that they are short of English speakers at present in their internship programs. My own political party here in Brussels, the European Peoples Party (EPP) are currently recruiting interns for the September to December period and are finding it difficult to attract native English speakers. The Closing date for entry for the EPP internships  is July 1st.

“Ireland is less engaged on European issues than our EU neighbors. We need to take more of an interest in how Europe is impacting on our everyday lives. One concrete way of doing this is to get young Irish people working in and interested in what happens in Brussels. The EU has been and continues to be a remarkably positive experience for Ireland. We are still a net beneficiary. In 2013, the EU spent 1.9bn in Ireland, whereas Ireland’s net contribution to the EU was 1.52bn. 82% of this money was spent on rural development and agriculture.

“This is an enormous opportunity for young Irish people to expand their horizons, gain experience and get firsthand knowledge of how the European Institutions really work.

“The EPP political Group in the European Parliament offers traineeships which last for 3 months. Trainees receive a monthly allowance of 1000 EUR to cover their living costs in Brussels. During their traineeship, trainees can attend one plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

“I would urge all young people to travel and gain as much experience as possible before settling into their choose career. An internship in Brussels would provide a platform to learn another language and see how decisions that are made at European level impact on us at home in Ireland. We need to get young people more involved in Europe and this is one of the programs that will address this.

“More details are available on the EPP internships by emailing

Epp-Stages@europarl.europa.eu

The European Parliament also offers a number of internships for young Irish people and more details can be found here.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/atyourservice/en/20150201PVL00047/Traineeships