Introducing Our Fall 2026 Trainees!

This September, the European Parliament Liaison Office in Washington DC welcomed four new trainees: Annie, Jackson, Luca, and Maria Irene. Their traineeship will teach them about the complex and ever-evolving relationship between the European Parliament and the US Congress, and the processes and tools used to maintain it. 

Every spring and fall, four trainees are accepted for a five-month traineeship at European Parliament Liaison Office. During the course of which each trainee will be exposed to a different aspect of the complex relationship between the European Parliament and the US Congress, from policy analysis, parliamentary research, to public diplomacy.  

Each trainee is assigned a profile, which defines their focus and responsibilities for the duration of the traineeship and ensures they are participants and not observers in the diplomatic process. 

Joining EPLO Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) is Annie. Originally from Illinois, Annie received her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University in Foreign Service and her master's degree from the University of Oxford in European Politics and Society. She also studied abroad for 6 months at Sciences Po Strasbourg. Her academic specialization has focused on populism and these parties' rhetoric.  

As a part of the EPRS team, Annie will be focused on providing research and reports to EU legislators, helping them understand the different happenings in Washington DC and in American politics more generally.  

In the coming months interpreting the results of the key races in the American midterm elections will be a top priority. Annie aims to use her traineeship to combine her American background and her Europe-focused education as well as to use her academic research skills in a more practical manner to produce insights and analysis that are approachable and usable in the “real world”. 

Covering Internal Policies is Jackson from Florida. Through his education, Jackson has worked and studied repeatedly in Europe. While pursuing his undergraduate degree in physics at Florida State University, he studied abroad at Institut Catholique in Paris. During his master's studies in international relations at Johns Hopkins SAIS, Jackson spent a year in Bologna, and focused on Europe and the Middle East, studying EU enlargement and collective security.  

With the Internal Policies team, he handles US domestic affairs. This includes not only analyzing a wide range of policy areas, from AI, the environment, to housing, but also tracking such legislation through Congress.  

Furthermore, during visits by EU legislators, Jackson, along with other EPLO staff, will accompany them to meetings with US policy makers and government officials.  

Through this traineeship Jackson looks forward to seeing how the different lawmaking processes in the EU and US interact with one another and their impact on the broader transatlantic alliance.    

Assisting the Communications team is Luca. Also originally from Illinois, Luca completed his undergraduate degree in Political Science and in Russian, East European, Eurasian, Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He also received certificates in European Union studies and in Global Security. 

Working with the Communications team, Luca will assist in a great variety of press and social media work. His responsibilities will range from writing articles, planning and creating social media content, setting up recording equipment, to covering official visits by EU lawmakers.  

Through his traineeship, Luca looks forward to learning about and using the various communication and outreach tools at EPLO’s disposal and to help increase accessibility and bring awareness to the important work of the European Parliament and EPLO. 

Working on the External Policies is Maria Irene from Cyprus and Greece. She studied Politics and Government with a regional concentration in the Middle East and Mediterranean and minored in Law at Sciences Po in Menton, spending her final year at George Washington University here in Washinton DC.  

At EPLO Maria Irene's work will be centered on understanding the foreign policy arena as relevant to both the US and the EU.  

Her work includes a variety of tasks, from tracking congressional actions related to foreign affairs and security, listening and attending briefs, to writing reports on these materials.  

Maria Irene is looking forward to using her past experiences of congressional affairs to understand this unique relationship between the European Parliament and American. Congress and to deepen her knowledge of the EU-US partnership. 

A traineeship with EPLO offers the unique opportunity to work on the transatlantic relationship from within an EU institution. From there, trainees can witness firsthand how transnational politics are conducted and contribute to them. 

Applications for an EPLO traineeship are accepted twice a year in the spring and fall. The application for the Spring-Summer 2027 period will open in mid-October.  

Interested in learning more or applying to the traineeship program? Find more information on our website or follow our social media accounts.