The European Parliament (EP) has started offering traineeships this week to commemorate murdered Slovak investigative journalist Jan Kuciak. The first trainees will join the EP in March 2020. This according to a statement made by the EP's press secretary, Soňa Mellak. In January of this year, the EP undertook to commemorate the memory of journalists who died as a result of their profession. The decision was therefore made to dedicate a number of places in the so-called Schuman placements to the memory of journalist Ján Kuciak, who was assassinated in February 2018. The traineeship can be attended by approximately 30 people, who will join the EP after 1 March 2020 for five months. Applicants have until November 30th to apply. Robert Schuman's traineeships aim to contribute to the European education and training of EU citizens and give them insight into the work of the EP. Each year, 21,000 candidates apply for an internship at the EP, with 900 selected.
On 28 February 2018, MEPs commemorated Jan Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová with a moment of silence during a plenary session in Brussels. In March 2018, the EP sent a delegation of deputies to Slovakia to meet with government and state officials, law enforcement agencies, journalists and NGO representatives, with the goal of ensuring a thorough investigation into the murders. The EP subsequently set up the so-called Rule of Law Monitoring Group (ROLMG), focused in particular on the situation in Malta and Slovakia. In its final report in March 2019, MEPs also expressed concern about the state of the fight against corruption and the independence of the judiciary both in Slovakia and Malta.
