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Translating for the European Commission — permanent staff

To work on the permanent translation staff of one of the EU institutions, you must become an EU official — which means being successful in an open recruitment competition.

Minimum requirements

You will need to meet a few basic requirements to take part in a recruitment competition for translators.

Formal qualifications

You must have completed a full university-level course of at least three years and obtained a degree.

Professional experience

No professional experience is required — and there are no age limits.

Language skills

You must:

  • have a perfect command of your mother tongue/main language (language 1)
  • have a thorough knowledge of English, French or German (language 2) and be able to translate out of it
  • in addition to languages 1 and 2, have a thorough knowledge of a second language (language 3) and be able to translate out of it.

All three languages must be official languages of the European Union. Specific language requirements will be indicated in the competition notice.

Check our ideal translator profile to see if you have what it takes.

General terms and conditions

You must:

  • be a citizen of one of the EU member states
  • enjoy full citizen's rights
  • have fulfilled any obligations relating to military service in your home country
  • meet the character requirements for the duties involved.

The European institutions apply an equal opportunities policy and accept applications without distinction on grounds of sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age, sexual orientation, marital status or family situation.

What we offer

Salary

EU civil servants' salaries depend on their grade and the step within that grade. Translators are recruited to grade AD (Administrator) 5 or above. All new recruits start on the lowest step in their grade.

Gross basic monthly salary (€) for EU officials*
Grade
AD		Step
12345
16
16.919,04
17.630,00
18.370,84
18.370,84
18.370,84
15
14.953,61
15.581,98
16.236,75
16.688,49
16.919,04
14
13.216,49
13.771,87
14.350,58
14.749,83
14.953,61
13
11.681,17
12.172,03
12.683,51
13.036,39
13.216,49
12
10.324,20
10.758,04
11.210,11
11.521,99
11.681,17
11
9.124,87
9.508,31
9.907,86
10.183,52
10.324,20
10
8.064,86
8.403,76
8.756,90
9.000,53
9.124,87
9
7.127,99
7.427,52
7.739,63
7.954,96
8.064,86
8
6.299,95
6.564,69
6.840,54
7.030,86
7.127,99
7
5.568,11
5.802,09
6.045,90
6.214,10
6.299,95
6
4.921,28
5.128,07
5.343,56
5.492,23
5.568,11
5
4.349,59
4.532,36
4.722,82
4.854,21
4.921,28

* 1/7/2010. Subject to salary adjustments according to the Staff Regulation.

 

Individual entitlements and allowances

You may qualify for:

  • household allowance for your husband/wife/registered partner and children
  • education allowance and access to the European School for your children
  • reimbursement of moving costs
  • installation indemnities
  • expatriation allowance, if your place of work is outside your country of origin

Income tax and social security

  • Your rate of income tax and social insurance contributions are set by and paid to the EU. You do not pay national tax on your salary.

Health insurance and pensions

  • The social insurance scheme for EU officials covers sickness, accident, invalidity and death, and pension rights. As an employee, your contributions are deducted from your salary.

Apply now

Competitions to recruit translators are held when the need arises — usually every 3 years for a given target language.

The European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) will announce translator competitions for English, Estonian, French, Irish, Italian, Latvian and Portuguese in July 2012.

Competitions for Croatian-speaking staff are also planned (registration: 21 June — 24 July).

What our English translators say (video)

 

 

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Last update: 27/05/2012 | Top