Pros
The Blue Book stagiaire programme attracts lots of nice and smart individuals from all over Europe (and beyond). There are many social activities, both during and after working hours, which means that there is plenty of opportunity to make friends.
Cons
Very heavy bureaucracy and extremely prevalent nepotism everywhere you look. Public money spent on services from external companies that no one ever utilises internally. Although it’s an international organisation, employees from the same nationality stick together (ie a French director will protect French staff etc). A complete lack of desire to do anything productive during the working day. Instead it’s frowned upon and/or ignored if you want to propose any new initiatives. There is no dynamism internally and the organisation is in dire need of influence from staff with different backgrounds and experience to develop a progressive and healthy working environment and thereby also a higher quality of output. Instead a large proportion of staff has no experience from the world outside of the ‘EU bubble’ which is a real shame. Extremely frequent coffee breaks for all units throughout the working day. No structured plan for stagiaires - there is very limited work (if any at all) and many are there just for the sake of it. The general working environment is extremely unpleasant and depressing. Lots of office politics and a lot of staff spending their days talking badly about other colleagues behind their backs instead of working. I was bullied by my manager throughout my stage and, although I left the office in tears several times and addressed the head of unit and HR, no one cared enough to help me. Subsequently, it took me almost a year to feel mentally balanced again following the end of my employment at the European Commission.