Good motivation letter is important when applying for a job with EU institutions. Before applying, it is useful to reflect on what factors motivate you in wanting to work for an EU institution. Usually it is a mixture of various considerations – such as the desire to work on international affairs, the opportunity to travel, getting an attractive salary and benefits, having an interesting and varied job, speaking and learning foreign languages, job security etc.

Being aware of which factors are the most important for you personally can help in identifying which profile to apply for − and it should also help in the structured interview,if you get to the Assessment Centre, when assessors try to find out more about your personality. “Being part of something larger than yourself” is a vital aspect that you may also emphasis in your application’s motivation section.

While your CV is crucial for your invitation to an interview, the motivation letter is your best friend that can “sell” your abilities and convince the reader that it is worth clicking on your CV to find out more about you. For the motivation letter, the most important issue is to use an upside down approach.

What does this mean? Well, it simply refers to the hint that in every motivation letter, always talk about “what’s in it for them” instead of “who am I and why I am fantastic”.  Once you get a feel for this approach, your motivation letter will never be the same. As a matter of fact, your EU job applications will go through such a radical change that you should not be surprised if you get invited to more interviews than you can handle…!

Motivation letter for EU job is structured as any other motivation letter.  We will provide below several examples of motivation letter for EU job

Motivation letter sample for a Traineeship in EU Commission

Motivation letter sample for a job in EU Parliament

The European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) is the main body responsible for the recruitment of individuals seeking EU careers, i.e. jobs in European institutions. This office is responsible for selection of staff for jobs in following EU Institutions: the European Commission European Parliament, the European Council, , the European Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the Committee of the Regions, the European External Action Service, the Economic and Social Committee, and the European Ombudsman.

Source: Wikimedia

The EPSO office creates pools of candidates for EU Institutions Jobs, and then each of the Institutions recruits’ staff from the pool.

The office claims that on average they receive 65000 applications form candidates seeking EU career, while between 1500 and 2000 candidates are selected for some of the jobs in EU institutions.

Jobs with the EU institutions include a wide range of career opportunities, mostly in administration and management, in various policy areas. Careers in the EU institutions can also involve participation in the EU legislative processes, like for example market policies, energy policy, humanitarian aid, etc.  However, most of the EU institutions jobs are related to the support activities curtail for normal operations of the EU institutions, like Finance, IT, linguistics, Human Resources, etc.

Most of the jobs in EU institutions require knowledge of at least two foreign languages, out of which one should be either English, German or French.However, majority of staff work in English language, and majority of official communication in done in English.

Jobs in EU institutions are considered as highly attractive, However, salaries have witnesses significant decrease in recent years, mostly due to salary grades given to the newcomers. Therefore, in comparing to other international institutions and organizations active in Brussels, jobs in EU institutions are nowadays mostly attractive for job-seekers coming from the new members states, i.e. form Eastern European Union states.

To learn more about types of the jobs and application procedures, click here.