Dear Ms X, 

You recently submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman against the Council of the European Union concerning the above issue.

In your complaint, you stated that, after applying for the traineeship programme of the Council of the European Union, you were shortlisted and invited to submit supporting documents and to confirm your interest in the traineeship via email. However, you later learnt that, when you replied to the Council, your email was quarantined because it contained hyperlinks (to LinkedIn and Linktree) that the Council’s email gateway had identified as potentially malicious. As a result, the email was not forwarded to the hiring service, and despite being shortlisted, you were not invited for an interview.

My Office opened an inquiry into the matter and, as a first step my inquiry team held a meeting on 10 March 2026 with the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union (GSC) to obtain information in relation to the case and to explore what steps the GSC envisaged to take to prevent similar situations from arising in the future. In the meeting, my inquiry team asked the GSC if it would consider reinviting you for an interview in the context of the upcoming traineeship procedure, in order to resolve the complaint.

The GSC explained that traineeship candidates receive an automatic acknowledgment of receipt when they submit their application. Shortlisted candidates are then contacted by email, asking them to reconfirm their interest in the traineeship and to provide proof of nationality. They are asked to reply within three to five days. The GSC said that this time limit is not applied strictly, provided the candidate replies within a reasonable time. Upon receipt of the candidate’s reply, their contact details are communicated to the relevant hiring service, which then agrees with the candidate on an interview date. All communications with candidates are exclusively done via email, and no reminder is normally sent to candidates who have not responded to the shortlisting email.

Concerning the technical issue that occurred in this case, the GSC confirmed that, after having checked with the IT team, specific hyperlinks contained in the email had been flagged as dangerous by the security system and the e-mail was automatically quarantined. Quarantined emails are deleted after 30 days, as per the Council’s policy. When this occurs, no notification is sent to the sender or to the recipient. For this reason, the GSC was made aware of the issue only when you contacted them and raised your concerns about the lack of follow-up to your reply.

In view of the explanations above, my inquiry team discussed the possibility of a solution to your situation. The GSC confirmed that they had considered re-inviting you for an interview in the next traineeship session, provided you submitted your application by the relevant deadline and fulfilled the eligibility requirements. They also agreed to grant you access to your previous application so that you could update it accordingly. Following the meeting, the GSC informed the Ombudsman’s Office that they had contacted you and that you confirmed your interest in re-applying for the traineeship. You also confirmed that you submitted a new application to the next traineeship session.

Furthermore, with a view to preventing similar issues from arising in the future, the GSC committed to including a disclaimer in the template email sent to traineeship candidates after they are preselected for the interview. The disclaimer will advise candidates to contact the GSC by email or by phone, should they not receive an acknowledgement of receipt within a specific deadline. Following the meeting, the GSC provided the Ombudsman’s Office with a copy of the revised template email.

After receiving a copy of the meeting report, you replied thanking the Ombudsman for the work done on the case and noting the GSC’s improvement in its communication with traineeship candidates.

Based on the inquiry, I therefore decided to close the case with the conclusion that it has been settled by the Council.

Yours sincerely, 

 

Teresa Anjinho

European Ombudsman

Strasbourg, 22/07/2026