APA salary and jobs at the European Parliament

What is the APA salary at the European Parliament?

An accredited parliamentary assistant (APA) earns a basic salary of €2,377.49 to €10,949.06 a month, from grade 1 to grade 19 of the official scale in force since 1 July 2025. The MEP chooses the grade. The figures are gross. After EU tax and contributions, a single assistant takes home about €2,017.69 at grade 1 and €7,771.69 at grade 19; with the expatriation allowance for those who moved to Belgium, €2,531.60 to €9,523.54.

APAs are the assistants who work for an MEP at the Parliament in Brussels or Strasbourg. They have a contract with the Parliament itself, under the rules for other servants of the EU, and the Parliament pays them out of the MEP’s budget for assistance. Their pay follows a scale of 19 grades, which is updated every year together with all EU salaries. The update for 1 July is usually published in December and paid back to July.

APA salary scale, full time, per month, from 1 July 2025

Net: our estimate after pension, health, accident and unemployment insurance, EU tax and the solidarity levy, with no household or child allowance. “Moved to Belgium” adds the expatriation allowance of 16 % (at least €513.91), paid to assistants who lived outside Belgium before the job. A part-time contract is paid pro rata.

Sources: Official Journal C/2025/6564, 2025 annual update of remuneration, point 18, European Parliament, salaries of Members' personal staff (checked October 2026)

How is an APA’s grade decided?

The MEP proposes the grade when the contract is signed, within the office budget. Each MEP may spend up to €32,072 a month on all personal staff together: assistants in Brussels, local assistants in the home country and service providers. At least 40 % of that amount must go to accredited assistants. So the grade reflects both the job and how the MEP divides the budget between staff. For local assistants employed in Belgium, the Parliament’s ceiling is €10,949 a month.

When you compare an APA offer with a job in the open market, remember that the APA salary is taxed by the EU, not by Belgium, which usually leaves more of the gross figure in your pocket. The contract, though, ends with the parliamentary term at the latest.

Sources: Implementing Measures for the Statute for Members, Article 29(4), consolidated 1 February 2026 (Bureau decision C/2025/6778), European Parliament, salaries of Members' personal staff (checked October 2026)

What does an APA do, and how do MEPs hire?

APAs run the MEP’s parliamentary work: committee files, amendments, briefings, meetings, press and correspondence. MEPs choose them directly, without an EPSO competition, and contracts end with the parliamentary term.

There are 720 MEPs and about 2,000 accredited assistants. Because the MEP chooses freely, a shared nationality, language and political outlook often decide. Close relatives of the MEP cannot be hired.

The term that started with the elections of June 2024 runs until 2029, when every APA contract ends at once. Between elections, posts open when assistants move on, when MEPs step down, or after national elections send MEPs home.

Most vacancies are passed on through LinkedIn, the national party and the group, and job boards. An MEP traineeship is a common way in: offices take trainees all year, for six weeks to five months, paid €1,133 to €1,856 a month.

Sources: European Parliament, MEP list, European Parliament FAQ, European Parliament, rules concerning Members' trainees, Article 10 (checked October 2026)

What do MEP-office vacancies look like?

In the last twelve months, 51 vacancies on our board were in MEP offices, about half of them traineeships. Most ask for the MEP’s own language as well as English.

We have tracked MEP-office vacancies since 2022: 239 so far, between 31 and 74 a year. These include offices shared by several MEPs, such as the team of a national delegation, but not the staff of the political groups, which count separately below. 22 % ask for English only. Too few of them state an amount to give a median salary or stipend; for APA contracts, the scale above is the reliable guide.

How do you work for a political group?

The political groups have their own secretariats, which hire advisers, press officers and administrators, mostly as temporary agents. They recruit through published vacancies and selection procedures, unlike MEP offices.

Since the 2024 elections there are eight groups. Identity and Democracy, which older guides still mention, dissolved in July 2024. Each group publishes its own vacancies and traineeships:

Seats of seated MEPs on the day checked; 28 more MEPs are non-attached.

Sources: European Parliament, MEP list, European Parliament, political groups (checked October 2026)

On our board, political groups and parties posted 67 vacancies in the last twelve months. 52 % of them ask for a language besides English, most often French and Dutch: the groups staff each national delegation. Group secretariats also run the larger political traineeship schemes; their dates are in the internship calendar.

The Parliament’s own secretariat, about 8,400 staff with the groups, recruits like the other institutions, through EPSO and CAST. See the EU institutions page.

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