Council of Europe Development Bank contracts and grades: a guide for applicants
A practical guide to CEB fixed-term and temporary contracts, internships, A–L–B–C grades, nationality rules and bilingual recruitment.
The Council of Europe Development Bank is a multilateral development bank with a social mandate. It has an institutional link to the Council of Europe but is a separate legal entity with its own staff rules and budget. It is not an EU institution, and it does not use UN contracts or grades.
Three main entry arrangements
The CEB’s application guide describes fixed-term staff contracts, temporary contracts and internships.
An initial fixed-term staff appointment lasts at least one year and no more than four years, with a one-year probationary period. It may be renewed, normally up to six years of total service. Conversion to an open-ended contract is possible only under the conditions in the Staff Regulations and Rules; it is not an automatic result of completing a first term.
A temporary contract lasts from one month to twelve months and may be renewed up to twenty-four continuous months in total. Temporary personnel meet short-duration needs and should not assume that the contract follows the same career path as a staff appointment.
Internships last three or six months and can be extended up to nine months. The current internship notice sets education, availability, payment and work-permission requirements. An intern is not placed on the staff grade ladder merely because the assignment is full-time.
The Bank can also procure consultants and firms. Those opportunities follow the procurement notice rather than the staff recruitment system, and the contractor does not receive a CEB staff grade.
Categories and grades
The current CEB Staff Regulations and Staff Rules classify staff in four categories.
Category A has grades A1 through A7 and covers specialized, expert and managerial work. The Bank’s 2024 reporting describes A1–A2 as specialized roles, A3–A5 as senior expert or managerial roles, and A5–A7 as senior management, with some overlap because actual posts are grouped into reference jobs and grade bands.
Category L covers language work and uses LI1/LT1, LT2, LI3/LT3, LI4/LT4 and L5. Category B runs from B1 to B6 and includes technical and coordination responsibilities. Category C runs from C1 to C6 and covers support and administrative work alongside lower B grades.
These are CEB categories, not Council of Europe salary labels to be copied without checking, and not equivalents of EU AD/AST or UN P/G grades. The vacancy’s grade or grade band is authoritative. Starting salary and allowances follow the Bank’s rules, grade and personal circumstances.
Senior A6 and A7 appointments have additional rules. External candidates are initially appointed for no more than four years, including one year of probation, and extensions can run between one and four years. That special provision should not be generalized to every grade.
Eligibility and location
Applicants must be nationals of one of the CEB’s member states. The membership list can change, so check it at the time of application. The Bank also requires perfect command of either French or English and good working knowledge of the other. Other European languages are assets. These are threshold rules, not preferences to overlook.
The Bank is headquartered in Paris. Roles cover project appraisal and monitoring, lending, treasury, risk, economics, environmental and social safeguards, evaluation, legal affairs, procurement, compliance, audit, information technology, finance, human resources, communications and administration. The CEB finances projects across member countries, so travel can be part of a Paris-based job.
Recruitment
Vacancies appear on the CEB careers site. The Bank accepts applications only for advertised openings; unsolicited applications are not considered. Applications may be in English or French. The process averages about three months but varies by vacancy, and can include screening, assessment and interviews.
Candidates who are not selected may be placed on a reserve list valid for two years. A reserve-list place is not an appointment, and candidates should still apply directly when another suitable vacancy appears.
Read the contract and grade together. A temporary A-level assignment and a fixed-term A-level staff appointment may involve comparable subject expertise but different duration, benefits and career treatment. That distinction is more useful than trying to force the CEB system into another organization’s ladder.