Professional Training Year at
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Report submitted by
Paul Preda Voicu
URN: 6183487
In part fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of BSc (Honours) in
International Hospitality and Tourism Management
School of Hospitality and Tourism Management
University of Surrey
2014

Table of Contents List of tables and figures 4 Acknowledgements 5 List of Abbreviations 6 Section A. Organisation evaluation 8 The Executive Summary 8 The Placement Overview 9 1. The Evaluation of the EP’s activities 10 1.1 The EP format 11
1.2 The History of the EP 11
1.3 Geographical Locations and Facilities 12 2. The People 16
2.1 Visions and Strategies 16
2.2 Institutional structure and management 16 2.2.1 External structure 16 2.2.2 Internal Structure 17
2.3 Management of the EP 21 2.3.1 EP’s Political management 21 2.3.2 EP’s Organisational management 22 2.3.3 EP’s Communication Management 23
2.4 Staffing, recruiting and training 24 2.4.1 Staffing 24 2.4.2 Recruiting 27 2.4.3 Training 27 3. The Numbers 27
3.1 Strict rules for efficient and transparent budget implementation 32 3.1.1 Separation of functions 32 3.1.2 Use of standard documents 32 3.2 Controls of the budgetary procedure 32 3.2.1 Internal controls 33 3.2.2 Internal audits 33 3.2.3 External controls 33 4. Evaluation and conclusion 34
4.1 SWOT analysis 34 4.2 Conclusions 35 Section B. Personal and professional development 36 1. Getting a Placement 36 2. Placement year objectives 37 3. Placement experiences 38 References 40 Appendices 43

List of tables and figures Figure 1. EP Locations Source: BBC.com (2014) 9 Figure 2. EU Coverage Source: EP Visits and seminar unit (2013) 13 Figure 3. Strasbourg centre Source: European Parliament (2014) 14 Figure 4. Brussels Centre Source: European