“More EAs should consider working for the EU” by EU Policy Careers

Context: The authors are a few EAs who currently work or have previously worked at the European Commission.

In this post, we

1. make the case that more people[1] aiming for a high impact career should consider working for the EU institutions[2] using the Importance, Tractability, Neglectedness framework, and;

2. briefly outline how one might get started on this, highlighting a currently open recruitment drive (deadline 10 March) that only comes along once every ~5 years.

Why working at the EU can be extremely impactful

Importance

The EU adopts binding legislation for a continent of 450 million people and has a significant budget, making it an important player across different EA cause areas.

Animal welfare[3]

• The EU sets welfare standards for the over 10 billion farmed animals slaughtered across the continent each year.
• The issue suffered a major setback in 2023, when the Commission, in the final steps of the process, dropped the ‘world's most comprehensive farm animal welfare reforms to date’, following massive farmers’ protests in Brussels.
  • The reform would have included ‘banning cages and crates for Europe's roughly 300 million caged animals, ending the routine mutilation of perhaps 500 million animals per year, stopping the [...]

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Outline:

(00:43) Why working at the EU can be extremely impactful

(00:49) Importance

(05:30) Tractability

(07:22) Neglectedness

(09:00) Paths into the EU

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First published:
February 1st, 2026

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/t23ko3x2MoHekCKWC/more-eas-should-consider-working-for-the-eu

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.