RECRUITMENT

THE EUROPEAN FISHERIES CONTROL AGENCY - EFCA - IS A EUROPEAN UNION BODY ESTABLISHED IN 2005 TO ORGANISE OPERATIONAL COORDINATION OF FISHERIES CONTROL AND INSPECTION ACTIVITIES BY THE MEMBER STATES AND TO ASSIST THEM TO COOPERATE SO AS TO COMPLY WITH THE RULES OF THE COMMON FISHERIES POLICY IN ORDER TO ENSURE ITS EFFECTIVE AND UNIFORM APPLICATION.

The Agency follows the personnel policy of the Staff Regulations applicable to European Institutions and Bodies. The Council has adopted new Staff Regulations on 22 March 2004. The successful candidates will be offered a post on the basis of these Staff Regulations.

The EFCA is organising selection procedures with a view to drawing up a reserve list of a maximum of 8 candidates for the following position:

EFCA – TA – AD8 - 1201 – SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER

The Agency will welcome applications from highly motivated candidates to participate in the development of EFCA.

Candidates are recruited on the condition they have full rights as a citizen. Candidates must have fulfilled any obligations imposed on them by laws concerning military service and meet the character requirements for the duties involved.

The EFCA has an independent and separate recruitment process from other EU institutions or other EU agencies.

In its recruitment, the EFCA only considers applications relating to positions which have been advertised, which means that unsolicited applications are not processed, with a view to maintain equal treatment of applicants.

1. Conditions of employment

The successful applicants will be appointed as Temporary Staff members of EFCA, according to the provisions of Article 2, Title I of the Conditions of Employment of other servants of the European Communities (CEOS).

The successful candidates will be recruited in the grade mentioned in the title of the offered position.

Recruitment follows the rules and practices of EU Institutions and bodies and successful candidates are offered:

- three-year renewable contracts as Temporary Agent.

The place of employment is Vigo, Spain.

2. General conditions for applications

Candidates may apply only where meeting the following criteria for consideration of their application:

A. Conditions

You must be a national of one of the Member States of the European Union or of Iceland or Norway.

You must be entitled to your full rights as a citizen.

You must have fulfilled the obligations imposed on you by the laws concerning military service.

You must meet the character requirements relating to the position you apply for.

You must submit a completed application for each post applied for.

Candidates may apply in any of the official languages of the European Union, but it would be helpful to apply in English in order to facilitate the selection process, when the Agency follows a practise of using English as working language. However candidates are also requested to state their educational qualifications and positions held in the language of origin.

The Agency is an equal opportunity employer and accepts applications without discrimination on the grounds of age, race, political and/or religious beliefs, sex or sexual orientation, marital and/or family status and regardless any kind of disability.

If you are invited to an interview, you will be asked to submit supporting documents to prove the information provided in your application.

B. Submission of applications

Each application shall contain the following documents:

These three documents should be sent by electronic mail only to:

EFCAVACANCIESTA@efca.europa.eu

Please mention in the subject line your last name followed by the position reference:
FAMILY NAME – EFCA-TA-XX-XXX

Please, note that only complete applications containing the above mentioned documents and information required will be taken into account.

Deadline for sending your application is: 29 April 2012

3. Selection procedure

A. Selection

A selection board is set up for the selection procedure. The principle of confidentiality is enshrined in Article 6 of Annex III to the Staff Regulations, which states that the proceedings of the selection board must be secret. It works in two ways: first, it imposes obligations to ensure equal treatment for candidates; and second, it seeks to protect the selection board to ensure that its decisions are totally impartial.

The selection board adheres strictly to the conditions of admissions laid down in the publication notice when deciding whether or not candidates are to be admitted. Candidates admitted to a previous selection procedure will not be automatically eligible.

Candidates are strictly forbidden to make any contact with the members of the selection board, either directly or indirectly. Any infringement of this rule will lead to disqualification from the selection procedure.

Should the selection board discover at any stage in the procedure that the candidate does not meet one or more of the general or special conditions for admission to the selection procedure or that the information on the application form does not correspond with the supporting documents, the candidate will be disqualified.

The selection board decides on those candidates who are admitted to the selection procedure in accordance with the requirements as specified in the publication notice. The applications of the candidates admitted to the selection procedure are reviewed and the selection board decides on those candidates who are invited to attend for interview. The interviewees will be asked to undergo a written test consisting of some/all of the following components: general aptitudes and language abilities to the extent necessary for the performance of the duties, knowledge on European integration, the institutions and the Agency and specific competencies with reference to the profile. Following the interviews, a reserve list of suitable candidates will be set up.

B. Reserve list and recruitment

Each candidate will be informed by letter whether or not he/she has been placed on the reserve list. The validity of the reserve list is up to 2 years from the date of the letter informing the candidate and may be extended. Therefore candidates whose name will be put on a reserve list could be offered a contract during this period of time. Candidates should note that inclusion on the reserve list does not guarantee recruitment. The recruitment procedure is as follows: as and when funds become available, candidates on the reserve list will be considered and the reserve list will be drawn on to fill vacancies. If a letter of intention is issued, the candidate must undergo a compulsory medical examination to establish that he/she meets the standard of physical fitness necessary to perform the duties involved and the candidate must provide original or certified copies of all relevant documents.

It should be noted that the retirement age for staff is:

• either automatically at the age of 65 years;

• or, at the staff member’s own request, at the age of 63 years or where the staff member is between 55 and 63 years of age and satisfies, as specified in the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants, the requirements for immediate payment of a pension.

The Agency employs Temporary Agents in accordance with the Conditions of employment of other servants of the European Communities, on 3 years' contracts with the possibility of extension for 3 further years and the possibility of a second extension which would convert these contracts into indefinite contracts.

Successful candidates who are recruited undergo an initial probation period of 6 months.

C. Pay and welfare benefits

The pay of staff members consists of a basic salary, to be weighted to compensate the Vigo cost of living and of additional allowances and deductions.

• Basic Salary: There is a basic salary scale for each grade, divided into a number of steps. Staff members progress automatically to the next step every two years until they reach the top of the scale for that grade. The basic monthly starting salary for the first step is 6299,95 euro and for the second step 6564,69 euro in the grade AD 8 (figures in Euro valid as of 1 January 2011 do not include any allowances neither the correction coefficient for Spain).

Temporary Agents at EFCA shall be appointed to grade set out in the notice of the selection procedure they have passed. In accordance to Art. 32 of the Staff Regulations a Temporary Agent shall be recruited at the first step in his grade. EFCA may allow additional seniority up to a maximum of 24 months (which corresponds to one additional step above step 1) to take account of professional experience. Any duly certified professional activity connected with one of EFCA’s areas of activity shall be taken into account. Any given period may be counted only once.

Allowances: In addition to their basic salary, staff members may be entitled to various allowances, in particular an expatriation or foreign residence allowance (depending whether the candidate has left his/her Member State to take up employment with the EFCA), and family allowances (depending on personal circumstances): household allowance, dependent child allowance, preschool allowance, education allowance.

Deductions: Staff pays an EU tax at source and deductions are also made for medical insurance, pensions and unemployment insurance. Salaries are exempt from national tax.

Under certain circumstances, in particular where staff members are obliged to change their place of residence in order to take up employment, the Agency may also reimburse various expenses incurred on recruitment, notably removal expenses.

Additional information can be obtained from the web site of the EFCA. Furthermore, the following link gives you direct access to the Staff Regulations:

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

Important
Please, take note that a binding commitment can only be made after verification of all conditions and will take the form of a contract signed by the Executive Director.

Please note that the selection process may take some time to be completed and that no information will be released during this period. Once a selection process has been completed, its status will be displayed on the web site of EFCA.

D. Data Protection

Please take note of the information on data protection for candidates in EFCA recruitment procedures.

4. Specific requirements and details of positions offered

Job description

Overall purpose:

To co-ordinate and organise the Agency’s projects in the field of data monitoring and networks projects with the aim to:

• develop and strengthen the skills, abilities, processes and resources that Member States need for the uniform application of the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy;

• provide guidance and to facilitate the exchange of best practices for building capacities in the concerned areas between relevant stakeholders;

• develop information and data exchange solutions for joint control and inspection activities, in particular FishNet. FishNet is a digital communication, collaboration and coordination platform with a strong emphasis on security. It is envisaged as a modular web-based system that aims to provide a virtual office-like environment to a user base of multi-tiered hierarchy. FishNet is expected to become a supporting pillar in the implementation of the EFCA activities.

Function and duties:

Reporting to the Head of Unit B “Capacity Building”, the successful candidate will be responsible to coordinate and organise the work in the section B.1. “Data monitoring and Network” and to:

- programme, manage and successfully implement the projects conducted within the section in particular the setting up of the FishNet portal which will include applications such as VMS, ERS, Electronic Inspection Reports systems, and remote communications solutions;

- manage the budget dedicated to the section;

- ensure a timely delivery of expected products and systems that should meet the required quality and security standards;

- ensure the alignment and the synergy with projects and initiatives of the other sections of the Unit (ICT, Training , Pooled Capacities, Maritime Surveillance and IUU);

- identify possible exploitation and production of value-added information from the different information and databases available and accessible inside and outside the Agency;

- prepare reports and documentation of the section and contribute to the project monitoring and report of the Unit;

- contribute to the Work programme, the Annual report and the IT Master Plan of the Agency;

- liaise with stakeholders at Community level and in the Member states, as well as in international organisations competent in the field.

Qualifications and experience required

A. Eligibility criteria

• University degree relating to the field covered by the duties concerned;

• Minimum of nine years of professional experience acquired after the diploma in a domain/specialisation relevant to the duties concerned;

• Very good command of English with a satisfactory knowledge of at least one other official language of the European Union;

• Ability to work in a multicultural and multilingual environment.

B. Selection criteria

Essential:

- Excellent experience in program and project management;

- Professional skills and experience in the coordination of software development projects (leadership, planning, monitoring, reporting);

- Sound experience in the development, administration and training of web based information systems, involving the acquisition, quality check and exchange of XML formatted data;

- Relevant experience in data analysis, Master Data Management and the usage of data warehouse systems;

- Good knowledge of EU fisheries and maritime policies, regulations and control;

- Excellent organisational skills and ability to prioritize;

- Ability to work independently and to take initiative;

- Ability to work effectively within an international and multicultural environment;

- Excellent communication skills and ability to communicate and collaborate with people at all levels;

- Proficiency in Office software, in particular in MS Office and MS Project.

Advantageous:

- Experience in similar project at national and/or EU level;

- Experience in team management;

- Expertise in software applications including satellite monitoring systems;

- Knowledge of legislation and standards applicable for data exchange in the field of the Community Fisheries Policy and Regional Fisheries Organisations;

- Qualification or equivalent knowledge and/or experience in project management tools (such PMP- project management planning or PRINCE);

- Experience in ORACLE Relational Database Management System.