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Italy, France, and Spain are the EU countries with the highest number of candidates in the past five years.
The Blue Book Traineeship programme welcomed 9,562 trainees between 2020 and 2025.Over the past five years, the European Commission hired more female trainees than male trainees across the European Union.That’s according to data shared by the Secretariat General of the European Commission via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.The Blue Book Traineeship programme is a five-month paid internship offered by the Commission, occurring twice a year – in March and October. It provides graduates with the opportunity to gain experience in EU policymaking and administration.There were only six instances in which the number of male trainees outnumbered female trainees.Malta was the EU country where this situation happened three times – in March 2020 and 2023, and in October 2023.The Netherlands had two occurrences in October 2024 and March 2025, and Denmark had one instance in March 2020.The only country where the number of female and male trainees was equal was Luxembourg in October 2021.Between 2020 and 2025, the programme admitted only 168 non-binary individuals. Italy is the country with the highest number of candidates, exceeding 25,000. France follows with over 11,000 candidates, and Spain has slightly over 10,000. By contrast, Estonia recorded the fewest candidates at just 199, followed by Malta with 240 and Latvia with 257. The UK’s last participation in this traineeship was in 2020, with 29 trainees in March and 24 in October.The year 2021 saw the highest number of candidates overall, accounting for more than 19,000 applications. However, in 2024, the highest number of trainees was accepted, exceeding 1,900 participants.Video editor • Mert Can Yilmaz
