This article is from WeChat public account: planet ring (ID: huanxingxingqiu) , author: LIN, from FIG title: EU
What is the experience of internship at the European Parliament?
The last semester of a French master’s degree requires more than half a year of internship experience. My major is international relations, with a focus on European studies, so I applied for the Robert Schumann internship program at the European Parliament Secretariat in Luxembourg and started a five-month internship.
The Robert Schumann Bonus is a project that encourages young people to actively participate in European affairs and gives graduates who have just left the campus an opportunity to learn more about how the EU works. Generally speaking, the job and internship positions of EU institutions are only open to members of the member states and the applicant countries. Only a few internship positions are open to young people from non-member states.
Since its formal establishment in 1993, the European Union has continued to develop and expand, with 28 member states and 24 official languages alone. Managing such a large economic and political entity is definitely not a simple task.
The most important institutions of the European Union are the European Council, the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Court of Justice, the European Statistical Office, the European Central Bank, etc. In addition to the headquarters, these agencies also have branches in other member countries, which is a fairly large and complicated management system.
Main functions of major EU institutions, screenshot source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union
My internship is at the General Secretariat of the European Parliament.
The European Parliament is a legislative, supervisory, budgetary and advisory body. Members of the European Parliament are directly elected by the people of 28 member states for a term of five years. Each country has a specific number of seats based on the size of the population.
Its headquarters is in Strasbourg, France, and its general secretariat is in Luxembourg, but a large number of meetings are held in Brussels, Belgium, and most of its staff are based in Brussels. The monthly parliamentary meetings of the European Parliament are held in Strasbourg and Brussels for four days and two and a half days, respectively.
The European Parliament ’s offices are located in three countries, causing two major problems:
The first is the huge commuting costs. Because meetings are held in different countries every month, a large number of staff and parliamentarians have to travel between the three cities all year round. The European Parliament paid a lot of subsidies for this.
Especially in the secretariat where I am, we have to be present at all the meetings of all the members. Many colleagues simply rent a house in Strasbourg for a long time to avoid the trouble of booking a hotel every month.
The second problem is the serious absence of participants. There are some meetings even with dozens of members. The empty meeting place is very awkward, and the luxurious parliament building in Strasbourg Over 300 days are vacant each year.
But in order to show the importance of their countries in the European Union, France and Luxembourg are reluctant to give up the European Parliament’s office. The former symbolizes the success of German-French cooperation, and the latter is known as “the crossroads of Europe.” “The way the European Parliament operates will probably not change.
Inside Leopold House, Brussels, Belgium, © Donlawath S / Shutterstock
The General Secretariat is an important part of the services of the European Parliament. Its responsibilities include: advising the European Union on foreign and security policies according to the needs of the Parliament; coordinating the work of the Council of Ministers; strengthening communication and coordination between EU institutions; and Provide administrative and logistical services for all levels of organizations, including keeping meeting records and providing legal advice.
My department is responsible for meeting minutes. Although it is a small department, every meeting must be attended in its entirety and recorded throughout. The job may seem simple, but don’t forget that the EU has 24 official languages.
Therefore, there must be translations of 24 languages for simultaneous interpretation at the scene of each meeting, and there must also be 24 copies of the final written meeting records, which is quite a heavy workload. As an intern, I have not missed any meeting, and I can go to Strasbourg every month to attend the General Assembly. It is also very beneficial.
Inside the Louis Wise Building in Strasbourg, France, © Diliff / Wiki
In addition to gaining a lot of work, during the internship, I also met many excellent and interesting colleagues.
My direct boss is a French. In addition to fluent English, authentic Swedish is also amazing. It turned out that he used to study and work in Stockholm, Sweden, and met his other half, a beautiful Swedish girl. Now they have two lovely sons, and the family moved to Luxembourg to settle.
And my other boss, Christina, still keeps a slim figure despite her old age, and she has waterfall-like golden long hair, which shows that when she was young, she was a blonde beauty. She has previously worked in the courts of Finland and also moved to Luxembourg to settle because of a more suitable job in the European Parliament. In addition to her mother tongue, she also speaks fluent English, French and Luxembourgish.
Although she has an enviable stable and well-paid job in the European Parliament, her real dream is to be a magician! She is not only a member of the World Magic Association, but also uses various holidays to perform magic shows. Beijing, Australia, and the United States have all left her beautiful pictures. It’s hard to overlap these two identities. The dedicated and serious secretary on the secretary’s desk of the European Parliament turned into a mysterious female magician.
Street in Luxembourg, © Alena Veasey / Shutterstock
There is also a bald handsome guy in Slovakia. Although he has become a full-time employee of the European Parliament, he still maintains his “characteristics”. He has eyebrows on his eyebrows and tongues on his tongue. He is full of personality; a Greek Uncle He, who didn’t talk much, was old-fashioned. After a meeting, I learned that I didn’t buy a return train ticket, and invited me to take a ride to take me home.
There are many other interns like me: a girl from Slovenia who majors in English and comes to the European Parliament as an interpreter intern; a young couple from Romania, in the same department as me, will speak English and French; the financial brother from Italy, because of the economic downturn in his country, came to Luxembourg to find a high-paying job.
I was initially surprised by the excellent language skills of the people around me. Mastering three languages is just the beginning, four are normal, and five or more are considered language advantages. For example, my landlord, the male owner is Italian, and the hostess is Portuguese. They have lovely children. This family can usually switch between Italian, Portuguese, German, French, English, and Luxembourgish without any obstacles.
Street in Luxembourg, © nito / Shutterstock
This is because Luxembourg is a trilingual country, where children are required to master French, German and Luxembourgish at the same time. In addition, Luxembourg is home to many EU institutions and one of the most important financial centers in Europe Is the ideal place to work in the minds of many Europeans, creating many “European immigrants”, where you canHear almost all European languages. So in this country that has truly achieved “European integration”, if you see someone who can speak five languages, don’t be too surprised!
Write at the end
Having lived in a small country like Luxembourg for half a year, I really like the work and colleagues here. The only thing that is unbearable is the silence here. Luxembourg’s natural environment is very good. It is full of rural scenery. Everyone lives in a single villa, but there seems to be no people outside. Except for commuting crowds at work and work, I want to go out for a walk on a good day. People who see it have no sheep. Lots! This is the real “good mountains, good water, and loneliness.”
Luxembourg, © Jean Carlo Emer / Unsplash
This article is from WeChat public account: planet ring (ID: huanxingxingqiu) , author: LIN