Legal Service Traineeships 2024

Community Plant Variety Office

The Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) in Angers invites applications for 2 traineeships of 12 months.  

Detailed information about the CPVO can be found at http://www.cpvo.europa.eu/.

Profile / Duties

The Legal Service of the CPVO deals with all the legal aspects related to the plant variety rights protection system and the functioning of the CPVO. The trainees will participate in the work of the Legal Service of the Office. Their main tasks will include, among others:

• providing assistance in conducting legal searches and drafting legal advice to other Units of the Office and external stakeholders,
• attending Office committees’ meetings,
• drafting decisions in legal proceedings including objections, nullities and cancellations,
• support in Board of Appeal and Court of Justice proceedings,
• reviewing contracts,
• providing support in the preparation of seminars and presentations on plant variety and Intellectual Property related issues,
• providing support in other related legal matters, such as data protection or public access to documents.

After an initial period of introduction, necessary to get familiar with the processes and the IT tools of the Office, the trainees will be requested to provide substantial contributions to the team. Trainees are for the CPVO young highly skilled professionals, whose capacities shall be valorised.

The human dimension of the Agency together with the wide range of tasks dealt in it will allow the trainees to truly understand and experience what it is to work for an EU institution. Proactivity and flexibility are highly valued at the CPVO.

General Conditions

To be considered eligible, applicants must satisfy the following requirements on the closing date for the submission of applications:

• Be a national of an EU Member State;
• Enjoy full rights as a citizen;
• Have a university degree of at least 3 years of study (minimum a bachelor) linked to Law;
• Have a thorough knowledge of one of the languages of the European Union and satisfactory knowledge of another official language of the EU.

Candidates who fulfilled a traineeship in another EU institution can apply.

Qualifications

• Candidates must have a degree in law and a post-graduate Master degree in Intellectual Property Law, obtained at the latest in September 2024. Knowledge of the Agrifood sector would be an asset;
• Candidates have to be at ease in a multicultural environment where the main working language is English;
• Candidates must have excellent IT skills necessary to perform successfully;
• They must have excellent communication skills in English, both written and oral, and good communication skills in any of the following languages: German, Dutch, Spanish or French.
• They must be able to work autonomously and pay attention to details.
• Previous work experience in the domain of intellectual property law, both in specialised international Law Firms or other IP Institutions/Agencies would be an asset.
• Previous work experience or Master's degree in the domain of data protection would be an asset.

Professional Experience

None required.

Additional Requirements

None.

Contractual Conditions

- The successful candidates will be offered a traineeship of 12 months (not renewable).

- Grant: trainees will be awarded a monthly traineeship grant, equal to 25% of basic salary for EU officials in grade AD5 step 1 as of 31.12.2023 plus the correction coefficient for France (for information: 1.645,38 € in 2024).

Recruitment procedure

Shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview via MS Teams.

For applications to be valid, candidates must be made through the CPVO electronic recruitment portal which can be found on the CPVO web site: http://www.cpvo.europa.eu/main/en/home/about-the-cpvo/vacancies.

Incomplete applications, and applications not sent via this tool, will automatically be excluded from the selection procedure.