EEA/CA/2009/21

The European Environment Agency (EEA) is organising an open competition with a view to recruiting a contract agent to work as Project Manager - Extension of EU Shared Environment Information System to ENP countries and further with a view to drawing up a reserve list.

The Agency:

The EEA is an agency of the European Union (EU) and one of the decentralised Community bodies. The EEA aims to support sustainable development and to help achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe’s environment, through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy-making agents and the public.

Job description:

The EEA will implement a project under ENPI (the European Neighbourhood Policy Instrument) covering monitoring, reporting and gradual extension of SEIS to the South and East neighbours respectively. Capacity building in all these areas will represent also an important part of the work. The contract will run over the period 2010-2014 and will cover all ENP neighbours (East[1] and South[2] and the Russian Federation). In the framework of this work the EEA is seeking a full-time project manager to ensure the gradual implementation of the SEIS elements in the ENP region.

The position will entail the following tasks:

• Coordinate in close collaboration with the Group of 4 (DG ENV, JRC, ESTAT, EEA) and Eionet the gradual extension of SEIS implementation to ENP countries in support of regular data and information exchange as well as better compliance with international obligations;
• Facilitate access to available data and information sources in ENP countries as basis for assessment and reporting work, at national, regional and pan-European levels;
• Identify and consolidate existing networks of data and information providers to become future nodes in SEIS network;
• Assess and report on the state of play of national information systems available in these regions and in the gradual extension of SEIS elements to the ENP/South and East neighbours;
• Help establish close partnerships with and encourage active participation of all relevant networks (including statistical ones) and organisations from the ENP countries in this work;
• Communicate and facilitate good working relations with and between the ENP countries, Eionet members, European Commission (including Eurostat and JRC), and NGOs, international organisations and other relevant expert institutes and scientific bodies;
• Communicate and promote the project objectives and results across the region, in particular the SEIS concept, benefits and expected outcome in order to actively engage the various stakeholders in the implementation of the tasks as well as in the dissemination of the results.

Eligibility criteria:

Candidates applying must satisfy the following eligibility criteria on the closing date for the submission of applications:

a)      Successful completion of university studies attested by a degree relevant to the field concerned, where the normal duration of university education is 4 years or more OR successful completion of university studies attested by a degree relevant to the field concerned, where the normal duration of university education is 3 years, plus 1 year of relevant professional experience;

b)      A minimum of 10 years of relevant professional experience after achieving the degree set out above.

In addition, in order to be eligible a candidate must:

• Be a national of one of the member countries of the EEA (Member States of the European Union plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey) OR be a national of ENP neighbours; East: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine; and South: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, occupied Palestinian territory, Syria, Tunisia, and Russian Federation.
• Enjoy full rights as a citizen;
• Have fulfilled any obligations imposed by law concerning military service;
• Have a thorough knowledge of one of the languages of the EEA member countries and a satisfactory knowledge of another of these languages to the extent necessary for the performance of the duties pertaining to the post;
• Meet the character requirements for the duties involved;
• Be physically fit to perform the duties linked to the post.

Selection criteria:

Essential:

• Proven management and negotiation skills, preferably with experience in the ENP countries;
• Demonstrated ability to deliver practical results and develop solutions for data exchange and strategy development;
• Experience in environmental data management, quality assurance and quality control;
• Good understanding of information and communication technology, data policy as well as recent developments for ensuring interoperability i.e. open standards; INSPIRE, GMES/GEOSS;
• Knowledge and understanding of existing environmental information systems;
• Good networking, interpersonal, communication and presentation skills;
• Very good knowledge of English.

Advantageous:

• Knowledge of French and/or Russian.

Contractual conditions:

The successful candidate will be offered a Contract Agent contract in accordance with Article 3a) of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities. Duration of the contract will be 24 months, with a possibility of renewal for up to 51 months in total. 

The basic monthly salary of a Contract Agent before any deductions or allowances, on 1 July 2008 amounts to:

Function Group IV, grade 14 (step 1)                               EUR 3,428.49

Function Group IV, grade 16 (step 1)                               EUR 4,389.04

To this basic salary a weighting factor is to be added (39.4%) for Denmark from 1 July 2008. The salaries of Contract Agents are subject to a community tax deducted at source. They are exempt from national tax.

The place of work will be Copenhagen, Denmark.

It is brought to the particular attention of candidates that the provisions of Articles 11 to 26 of the Staff Regulations, concerning the rights and obligations of officials, shall apply by analogy to Contract Agents. These rules specify that:

“An official shall carry out his duties and conduct himself solely with the interests of the Communities in mind; he shall neither seek nor take instructions from any government, authority, organization or person outside his institution. He shall carry out the duties assigned to him objectively, impartially and in keeping with his duty of loyalty to the Communities.

An official shall not without the permission of the appointing authority accept from any government or from any other source outside the institution to which he belongs any honour, decoration, favour, gift or payment of any kind whatever, except for services rendered either before his appointment or during special leave for military or other national service and in respect of such service.”

For further information on the Staff Regulations and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities see:

http://ec.europa.eu/civil_service/docs/toc100_en.pdf

Selection procedure:

Eligibility of candidates will be assessed according to compliance with all eligibility criteria by the closing date for the submission of applications.

Eligible candidates whose application shows evidence of all required competences and skills listed under “Selection criteria” may be invited for an interview, which will be held for the most part in English. Pre-selected candidates will be asked to undergo a written test in the area of expertise required for the post.

The list of suitable candidates is submitted to the Appointing Authority who decides on the appointment of the successful candidate and the establishment of a reserve list for the post advertised. Candidates shall note that inclusion on the reserve list does not guarantee recruitment. Recruitment will be based on availability of posts and budget.

The reserve list for this post will be valid until 31 December 2013 and may be extended at the discretion of the Appointing Authority.

Prior to contract signature, the successful candidate will be asked:

• to provide original or certified copies of all relevant documents proving his/her eligibility, including an extract from his/her police file;
• to undergo a compulsory medical examination to establish that he/she meets the standard of physical fitness necessary to perform the duties involved.

 Personal data protection:

Any personal data provided by the User shall be processed pursuant to European Regulation related to personal data protection, in particular Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movements of such data. It shall be processed solely for the purposes of the performance, management and follow-up of information requested by the User. The User shall have the right of access to his personal data and the right to rectify any such data that is inaccurate or incomplete. Should the User have any queries concerning the processing of his personal data, he shall address them to the European Environment Agency.

Equal treatment:

EEA is an equal opportunities employer and accepts applications without distinction on the grounds of sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, age or sexual orientation. Staff is recruited on the broadest possible geographical basis from among nationals of all EEA member countries.

Application procedure:

Interested candidates must apply by filling in the application form below. To the application form must be attached:

• The Europass CV below duly filled in;
• A letter of motivation; and
• The eligibility and selection criteria grid below duly filled in.

Application Documents:

• Template Europass CV
  
• Instructions for Europass CV
  
• Eligibility and selection criteria grid
  

NB: Failure to submit any of the required documents will lead to exclusion from the procedure.

Closing date for application: Friday 29 January 2010, at 12.00 (Central European Time)

Applications sent after this date will be rejected.

Please ensure that you observe the following:

1.      Remember to take time zones into consideration when sending your application.

2.      Include both a CV using the Europass template attached above and a letter of motivation.

3.      Ensure to specify in CV exact starting and end dates of professional experiences (date/month/year) as well as percentage of work activity in case the experience is not full time.

4.      Include the duly filled in eligibility and selection criteria grid.

5.      Once your application has been submitted, you will receive an automatic reply.

6.      It is your responsibility to keep the automatic reply message as proof of submission of your application.

7.      Should you not receive an automatic reply message, please submit your application again.

8.      Please do not leave it until the last minute to submit your application. Experience has shown that the system can become overloaded as the deadline for applications approaches and you may find it difficult to submit your application in time.

9.      Candidates may apply in any of the official languages of the European Union but the use of English is encouraged to facilitate the selection process.

Request for review:

Candidates who have not been admitted to the selection procedure will be notified by letter. The candidate may ask to have her/his application reconsidered by sending a request for review to the Chairperson of the Selection Committee at the address indicated on the letter within 21 calendar days from the date of the letter of notification.