It is a reality that many young people in Europe, including those currently
doing traineeships at the European Parliament, are trapped in a cycle of
unemployment and short-term contracts. Even worse, many MEPs in this very
institution do not pay their stagiaires at all, which has major negative effects
on social mobility and justice.
STC has traditionally only concerned itself with Schuman trainees on paid
5-month placements in the EP Secretariat. However, we are attempting to reach
out also to stagiaires working for Political Groups and MEPs. This has shown
that there is a great deal of discrimination between different categories of
stagiaire. STC does not currently have a political stance on this issue, and
does not lobby the EP on behalf of Political Group stagiaires. However, we are
moving towards doing so, and it will be a long and complex process - made all
the more difficult by the fact that we have total changeover of membership every
6 months!
Recent
groups of stagiaires have attempted to get greater acknowledgement from the EP
through "internalisation" within DG PERS. However, this is having little success,
and we are beginning to think it might be better to move to a more
"syndicaliste" Modus Operandi, perhaps even in cooperation with other stagiaires
in other institutions.
