Traineeship in European Commission-Is there a Preference Towards EU Applicants?

 European Commission, hires trainees each year all around the world to assist in their offices at Luxembourg and Brussels.

At https://ec.europa.eu/stages/online/cv/application_statistics.cfm?session=81, they publish the statistics of number of applications and trainees.

In October 2013, 18707 applications were submitted, and 684 of them were accepted (3.65%). Among those were 1818 Non-EU applicants, of which 32 were accepted (1.76%).

A Z test can reveal whether if it is statistically significant that selection committee prefers EU citizens over non-EU citizens. The results of the test show that:

Test and CI for Two Proportions

Sample    X      N  Sample p
1        32   1818  0.017602
2       652  16889  0.038605

Difference = p (1) - p (2)
Estimate for difference:  -0.0210032
95% CI for difference:  (-0.0277100, -0.0142965)
Test for difference = 0 (vs not = 0):  Z = -4.53  P-Value = 0.000

Fisher's exact test: P-Value = 0.000


The results conclude that at 95% confidence level, there is overwhelming evidence (p=0.00) to conclude that the selection rate of EU applicants are higher than non EU applicants. The question is whether if this preference is skill based, or if there is positive discrimination towards EU applicants. If there is positive discrimination, it is Commission's responsibility to
mention this in the application process.

Salih Yasun
Cleveland State University