Directorate for Visitors

The European Parliament stands for European democracy. We help connect it to people.

This entails providing complete and impartial information to citizens and media about the European Parliament, and assisting Members in their communication activities. The Directorate-General for Communication (DG COMM) strives to reach and engage the right audience with the right message at the right time and in doing so, deliver world-class communication. We are committed communication professionals coming from various professional and academic backgrounds.

The Directorate for Visitors aims at raising citizens' awareness and engagement with the European Parliament. Visiting the European Parliament enables citizens to build a direct relationship with the European institutions and examine Europe from a European perspective. Citizens are welcome to experience visits to the Parlamentarium and House of European History in Brussels, and both the Hemicycles in Brussels and Strasbourg. Europa Experiences around Europe are bringing the visitor experience even closer to citizens. The visiting facilities are aimed at many target audiences, including families, young people and the educational sector. Different activities, such as the permanent exhibitions and role-play game cater to various interests, whether academic or self-inspired. The European Parliament aims to offer an unrivalled visitor experience among parliaments. As part of DG COMM, these activities are run by the Directorate for Visitors.

Working in the Directorate for Visitors, you will have the chance to know more about the European Parliament’s global offer for visitors in Brussels (e.g. sponsored and non-sponsored groups, Parlamentarium, House of European History) and in Strasbourg (e.g. Role Play Game, Schirmeck experience) and beyond (Europe Experiences).

During this traineeship, you will deal with the administrative, communication and financial aspects of managing the Directorate.

You will work with the Director's team and carry out the following tasks:

• Facilitating internal communication: drafting the Directorate for Visitors’ newsletter, updating intranet, publishing the weekly news of the Directorate for Visitors on the DG COMM intranet;
• Assisting the Director’s team in the field of budgetary and financial matters, including drawing up budget forecasts, collecting information needed for drawing up accounting documents from different services, and contracts management;
• Providing administrative support to the Director’s team: drafting minutes of meetings, providing the Director with feedback about conferences and events;
• Providing support in performance management and collection of indicators;
• Assisting the Director’s team in content monitoring, editorial follow-up and reporting;
• Following all activities in the organisation structure and facilitating internal coordination among Units and Services.

Being a trainee at the Directorate for Visitors is a valuable chance to see how the European Parliament works and see the systems and structures behind modern communications strategies. Applicants should have an interest in seeing the administrative and financial management of the Institution, as well as editorial and content coordination structures.

The following skills are requested:

• Organisational and planning skills;
• Analytical and comprehension skills;
• Ability to work with figures, including using Excel;
• Ability to work as part of a team;
• Interpersonal skills;
• Forward planning;
• Confidentiality/discretion;
• Strong written communication.