There is no single European CV. There is a shared baseline that works almost everywhere, plus a handful of local habits that change how your CV is read. Get the baseline right, then adjust two or three details per country.
The baseline that travels
- Reverse-chronological order, most recent role first.
- One or two pages. Two is normal in Europe once you pass five years of experience.
- Month and year for dates — day-level precision looks like a form, not a CV.
- Contact block with one email, one phone number in international format (+33, +49, +31), city and country.
- Languages with honest CEFR levels (A1 to C2), not stars or bars.
- PDF, named clearly: firstname-lastname-role.pdf.
Where countries diverge
- Photo: expected in Germany, Austria and much of central Europe; unwelcome in the UK and Ireland; optional in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Nordics.
- Length: the UK and Ireland prefer two pages maximum; Germany tolerates longer with certificates attached; the Nordics prefer short and plain.
- Personal details: never include date of birth, marital status, nationality or a photo for UK, Irish or Dutch applications.
- References: named referees are still common in Ireland and the UK; elsewhere “references on request” or nothing at all.
- Cover letter: near-mandatory in Germany, France and Belgium; often optional in the Netherlands and Nordics, but always read when it exists.
Do you need Europass?
Europass is useful for public-sector and academic applications, and for recognising qualifications across borders. For private-sector roles it reads as bureaucratic and buries your strongest lines in a rigid template. Use a clean, plain CV by default and keep a Europass version for institutions that ask for one.
GDPR, in one paragraph
You do not need a consent statement on your CV. Employers are the data controller and rely on legitimate interest to process an application you sent them. What you should do is share the minimum: no ID numbers, no full address, no bank details, no scans of documents unless the employer explicitly requires them at contract stage.