Trainee Legal

EDA - European Defence Agency

Brussels, Belgium

THE TRAINEESHIP

The aim of this traineeship is to assist with standard horizontal/coordination tasks of the EDA Legal Unit, as well as to contribute to the completion of punctual projects concerning documentation of procedures in the Legal Unit.

TASKS AND DUTIES

Under the supervision of a trainee advisor, the trainee will work with colleagues in key legal areas that support institutional objectives. More specifically, the trainee will provide support in:

conducting legal research and analysis on EU and international law, particularly in areas relevant to defence, compliance, regulatory, procurement and grants matters;
reviewing and drafting Agency decisions, agreements, MoUs, guidance notes, templates or other legal documents within the Agency’s remit;
documenting procedures in the Legal Unit, in line with CSD common policy, providing complementary information on the main procedures handled by the Legal Unit;
developing guidelines on intellectual property rights in ad hoc projects;
updating data protection records and privacy statements and updating the dedicated repository;
preparing the Agency’s anti-fraud strategy;
registering consultations in the electronic document management system and archive documents, and monitoring functional mailboxes;
take on additional tasks as required in the interest of the service.

A typical day at work may involve the following activities:

monitoring the Unit’s functional mailboxes;
updating the Unit’s databases;
updating the Unit’s SharePoint page;
handling incoming and outgoing mails;
reviewing and summarizing case law, legislation and regulatory updates;
drafting memos and other correspondence;
updating templates;
assisting with the preparation and follow-up of meetings and documents;
participating in meetings with internal and external stakeholders on legal and compliance matters;
engaging in knowledge-sharing activities and contributing to internal legal monitoring activities.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Project outputs & learning outcomes:

The trainee will be involved in the handling of legal consultations and will gain knowledge in initiating documents in draft, updating templates, performing administrative controls, and reporting. The trainee will also become familiar with and will acquire practical experience in understanding the legal framework governing the Agency, particularly regarding defence, compliance, regulatory, procurement and grants matters. The trainee will also obtain hands-on experience with IT tools for workflow optimization, and document management platforms such as SharePoint, including familiarity with AI tools.

Technical/Soft skills to be acquired:

From this experience the trainee will gain:

ability to work effectively in a multinational/multicultural and complex environment;
accuracy and attention to detail;
database content management;
very good organisational and communication skills;
flexibility and ability to communicate with different counterparts (government and industry);
quantitative and qualitative data analysis;
report preparation and writing skills;
web-tool/database management skills;
time management;
organisation of meetings and events;
ability to work effectively in an EU environment;
technical knowledge of the EU Financial Regulation with a focus on procurement procedures and documents drafting;
technical knowledge about the function of financial circuits for approval and financial rules.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

To be considered eligible to take part in this selection procedure, on the closing date for the submission of applications candidates must satisfy all the eligibility criteria as specified below:

be a national of a Member State participating in the Agency;
be entitled to their full rights as citizens;
produce the appropriate character references as to their suitability for the performance of their duties (extract from the “judicial record” or certificate of good conduct will be requested prior to recruitment);
be physically fit to perform their duties;
have a thorough knowledge (minimum level C1 oral and written) of one of the languages of the participating Member States and a satisfactory knowledge (minimum level B2 oral and written) of another of these languages to the extent necessary to discharge their duties;
have no personal interest (financial, family relationship, or other) which could be in conflict with disinterested discharge of their duties within the Agency;
hold, or be in a position to obtain, a valid Personnel Security Clearance Certificate (national or EU PSC at SECRET UE/EU SECRET level);
have completed at least the first (minimum three-year) cycle of a higher education course (university education) and obtained a full degree or its equivalent by the closing date for applications;
have not previously undertaken for more than six weeks a paid or unpaid traineeship or any kind of employment in another EU institution, Agency, or body.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Only applications meeting all essential selection criteria will be assessed.

The pre-selection of candidates to be invited to an interview is based on a comparative assessment of all applications against the selection criteria and additional assets.

It should be highlighted that the selection criteria constitute a minimum threshold and that only candidates considered as most suitable are invited to an interview.

Essential:

On the closing date for the submission of applications candidates must satisfy all the essential criteria as specified below:

a University degree (or equivalent academic degree) in Law;
advanced IT skills, particularly in MS Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook);
a very good command of written and spoken English (minimum level C1).