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European CVs

Europass-style CVs, and the official Europass service

Two different things with similar names. This page explains which one you probably want, and what a European-style CV is actually made of.

Europass is the European Union’s own careers platform. It is free, it is managed by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, and it lets you build a CV inside a Europass profile, keep it in your Europass Library and share it from there. If that is what you came for, go straight to it. The link is below and this page will still be here afterwards.

This site is not that service. Europass CV Maker is an independent CV builder. It offers a European-style layout of its own design — European Professional — which follows the conventions structured European CVs have in common. It does not produce a Europass document and it is not connected to your Europass profile in any way.

What follows is the comparison worth having before you pick one: what a European-style CV is actually made of, how to state language levels so they mean something, the personal-details decision that catches people out, and which of the two tools fits which situation.

Which one do you want?

The short answer, so you do not have to read the rest of the page to get it.

Use the official Europass service if

  • An employer, university or programme has asked specifically for a Europass CV.
  • You want the CV held in your Europass profile and Europass Library, and shared from there.
  • You need it in one of the 31 languages Europass supports.
  • You are also using Europass Digital Credentials, a Diploma or Certificate Supplement, or Europass Mobility.
Go to the official Europass service(opens in a new tab)

This site may suit you better if

  • You want a European-style CV whose layout, length and typography you control.
  • You want the same content to also come out as a strict single-column ATS layout for a job portal, without rewriting a word of it.
  • You would rather not create an account — the editor here works signed out and keeps a draft in your own browser.
  • You want a profession-specific starting point rather than an empty form.
Start a European-style CV

What a European-style CV is made of

There is no single European CV. Conventions differ between Berlin, Madrid and Warsaw about as much as they differ between London and New York. What people usually mean by a "European CV" is the structured, explicitly labelled document the Europass format made familiar, and which many EU public-sector and academic applications now expect out of habit.

Those documents tend to share six features. Each one is a deliberate choice with a cost as well as a benefit, which is worth knowing before you adopt the format wholesale.

  1. 1

    A personal information block at the top

    Name and contact details, and in many countries nationality, date of birth and a photograph as well. This is the part that has to change depending on where you are applying, and it is the part that does the most damage when it does not.

  2. 2

    A stated target position

    One line naming the job applied for. It is unusual on a UK CV and normal on a structured European one, and it earns its place when an employer is running several vacancies at once and a human is sorting the applications.

  3. 3

    Explicitly labelled sections

    Work Experience, Education and Training, Language Skills, Digital Skills. The labelling is the point: the document is meant to be read across languages and hiring cultures, so it does not rely on layout alone to signal what a block is.

  4. 4

    Dates in a left-hand gutter, most recent first

    A reviewer can trace your chronology down one edge of the page rather than hunting for it in each entry. It costs horizontal space, which is why UK commercial CVs usually do not do it.

  5. 5

    Language proficiency stated as a level, not an adjective

    This is the single largest difference from a UK or US CV, and the one most people get wrong. It has its own section below.

  6. 6

    More length than a UK CV

    Two pages is the British norm. A structured European CV routinely runs longer because it carries more explicit fields. That is accepted in the markets that expect the format and held against you in the ones that do not.

Language levels: A1 to C2, and why “fluent” is not one of them

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) sets six levels — A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2 — grouped into three bands: Basic User (A1–A2), Independent User (B1–B2) and Proficient User (C1–C2). Europass publishes self-assessment descriptors for each level.

The self-assessment is done across five separate rows rather than as one overall score: listening, reading, spoken interaction, spoken production and writing. Very few people sit at the same level in all five, and saying so is more credible than a single claim of fluency — a reader who has learned a language knows that understanding a meeting and chairing one are different skills.

The practical effect on your CV: replace "English — fluent" with "English — C1", and give the five rows where the application cares about them. "Fluent", "good" and "working knowledge" mean different things to different readers. B2 does not.

A self-assessed level is exactly that. If you hold a certificate — IELTS, TestDaF, DELE, a Goethe-Institut certificate — name it and its date alongside the level rather than instead of it.

Level definitions and the self-assessment descriptors are published by Europass at the Common European Framework of Reference for language skills(opens in a new tab).

Personal details: the decision that actually matters

The personal information block is where a European-style CV can quietly cost you an application, because the details it invites are ordinary in some markets and unwelcome in others.

  • In much of continental Europe — Germany, Spain, Italy and Poland among others — a photograph, a date of birth and a nationality on a CV are conventional, and leaving them out is sometimes noticed.
  • In the UK and Ireland they are not. Many employers anonymise applications specifically to remove them, and a CV carrying a photograph is sometimes stripped or sent back.
  • In the US the convention matches the UK’s, for related reasons.
  • So the format is usually the safer choice for an EU institution or an academic post, and usually the wrong one for a commercial role in London. This is a decision about the destination, not about the layout.
The layout on this site supports these fields but never requires them. Leave date of birth, nationality and photo empty and the panel simply does not render them.

If you are applying in Britain rather than the EU, the UK CV format guide sets out the opposite convention, and should you add a photo? takes the single most consequential field on its own.

The European Professional layout on this site

An original design that follows the convention above. It is not a copy of the official Europass document, and it does not carry its branding.

ATS CompatibleOne columnPhoto supported

European Professional follows the conventions common to structured European CVs: an explicit personal information block at the top, a stated target position, clearly labelled sections, and dates in a left-hand gutter so a reviewer can trace chronology down the page. Language proficiency is rendered with CEFR levels and, where you fill them in, the individual listening, reading, spoken and writing dimensions. It is an original layout inspired by that convention - it is not an official Europass document, and it carries no European Commission branding.

What it does

  • Personal information panel and target position line, as expected on structured European CVs
  • Dates in a left gutter, so chronology is readable at a glance
  • CEFR language levels with optional per-skill breakdown
  • Photo supported, which is conventional in much of continental Europe

When to choose something else

  • The personal information block invites details - date of birth, nationality, a photo - that are not conventional in the UK, Ireland or the US, and that many employers there would rather not be sent. Leave those fields empty when you apply to those markets.
  • The structured layout runs longer than the two pages usually expected for a commercial CV in the UK.
  • It is a European-style layout of our own design. It is not an official Europass document and does not produce one.
Start a European-style CVSee the full layout page
The European Professional layout, rendered by this site rather than photographed. The personal information panel, the “Applying for” line, the left-gutter dates and the per-skill CEFR breakdown are all visible. Nationality, date of birth and photo are supported but left empty here, for the reason given above. Sample details are fictional.

What this site does not do

Stated here rather than left for you to discover after you have written a CV.

  • It does not produce an official Europass document. What you download here is a PDF made by this site.
  • It is not connected to Europass. There is no Europass profile, no Europass Library, no signing in with Europass, and no import or export of the Europass data format. Moving content between the two means copying it across by hand.
  • It carries no European Commission or Europass logo, emblem, colour scheme or page design, and it does not reproduce the official layout.
  • It is English only. Europass supports CVs in 31 languages; this site’s interface, layouts and guidance are in English.
  • It cannot tell you whether a particular employer will accept a European-style CV in place of a Europass one. Only they can answer that.

If any of those matter to you, the official service does them and this one does not. It is free: europass.europa.eu(opens in a new tab).

Common questions

Is this the official Europass website?
No. Europass CV Maker is an independent CV-building service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Europass or the European Commission. The official service is at europass.europa.eu and is managed by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.
Is the PDF I download here an official Europass document?
No. It is a PDF produced by this site, using a layout of our own design that follows structured European CV conventions. It is not issued by, registered with or validated by any European institution, and it carries no Europass or European Commission branding.
Can I import my existing Europass CV into this site?
No. There is no import from Europass and no export in the Europass data format, so the content would have to be copied across by hand. If keeping the CV inside Europass matters to you, use the official editor instead.
Do I need a Europass account to use this site?
No, and a Europass account will not sign you in here — the two are unconnected. The editor on this site works with no account at all; an account here only exists so you can save a CV and open it again later.
Which layout should I use for an application in the EU?
European Professional if the employer expects a structured European CV. If the application goes through a job portal or an applicant tracking system, Minimal ATS is the safer choice. Your content is stored separately from the layout, so you can switch between the two without retyping anything.
Will a European-style CV pass an applicant tracking system?
European Professional is rated ATS Compatible: a single column, conventional headings and no graphics carrying meaning, which covers the usual parsing failures. No one can guarantee the behaviour of software they do not control, though, and a photograph is worth removing for a portal application whatever the layout.

Where to go next

European Professional layout

The layout in full, with its strengths, its limitations and a preview on six professions.

Minimal ATS layout

The single-column alternative for portal applications. Same content, different rendering.

CV format in the UK

The contrasting convention: two pages, no photo, no personal details.

Should you add a photo?

The same decision as above, taken one detail at a time and by market.

How to write a CV

Structure, length and what belongs in the first third of the page.

CV examples by profession

Thirty worked examples, each with the section order its field expects.

Sources

Everything this page states about the official Europass service comes from the official site, on the date shown. Page last reviewed 2 Sept 2026.

Europass CV Maker is an independent CV-building service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Europass or the European Commission.