Recruitment of Temporary Agents

THE COMMUNITY FISHERIES CONTROL AGENCY - CFCA - 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 Community Fisheries Control Agency is organising selection procedures with a view to drawing up reserve lists for the following positions:

• FISH-CFCA-TA-AD11-0806: HEAD OF UNIT MCS – MONITORING, CONTROL AND SURVEILLANCE
• FISH-CFCA-TA-AST7-0807: ASSISTANT FOR CONTROL AND INSPECTION METHODOLOGIES
• FISH-CFCA-TA-AST6-0808: ASSISTANT FOR CAREER DEVELOPMENT OF STAFF

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

1. Conditions of employment

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

The successful candidates will be recruited in grades mentioned in the titles of the offered positions.

The initial duration of the contract is of three years, with possibility of renewal.

The place of employment is Vigo, Spain, where CFCA will be located from June 2008.

2. General conditions for applications

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

A. Common conditions to all positions

• 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 Community, but it would be helpful to apply in English in order to facilitate the selection process, as 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:

• A detailed curriculum vitae in European format that can be obtained at the following address
  http://europass.cedefop.eu.int/europass/home/vernav/Europass+Documents/ Europass+CV//navigate.action,
• A duly completed and signed declaration of honour ( ~87 Kb),
• A motivation letter of 2 pages maximum including a clear mention of the post applied for and of your address for correspondence and for invitation to interview

These three documents should be sent by electronic mail only to:
cfca-vacancies-ta@ec.europa.eu

Please mention in the subject line your last name followed by the position reference:

FAMILY NAME – CFCA-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 Friday 22 February 2008

3. Selection procedure

A. Selection

A selection board is set up for each selection procedure. The principle of confidentiality, which states that the proceedings of the selection board must be secret, shall apply. 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 admission 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 selection board may decide on the need for interviewees to undergo one or more written tests related to the nature of the duties in order to facilitate the selection process. Following the interviews, which are conducted by the selection board, the selection board decides which candidates will be placed on the reserve list.

B. Reserve list and recruitment

Each candidate will be informed by mail whether or not he/she has been placed on the reserve list. Candidates should note that inclusion on the reserve list does not guarantee appointment. 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.

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 supplemented with various allowances, including family allowances.

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.

Allowances: in addition to their basic salary, staff members may be entitled to various allowances, in particular an expatriation or foreign residence allowance, and family allowances, including household allowance, dependent child allowance, pre-school allowance and an education allowance.

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 CFCA.

Furthermore, the following link gives you direct access to the Staff Regulations: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/personnel_administration/statut/tocen100.pdf. (~1,2 Mb)

D. 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.

Note that this call may be used for the recruitment of a similar post, for a period of 2 years following the closing date stipulated. Therefore candidates whose name will be put on a reserve list could be offered a contract during this period of time.

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 CFCA.

4. Specific requirements and details of positions offered

Job description

Overall purpose:

To administer and coordinate monitoring of control and surveillance activities in accordance with the mandate of the Agency.

To define and implement quality standards for data management and analysis.

Functions and Duties:

Reporting to the Executive Director and within a team of 10/12 people, the Head of Unit MCS will be responsible for:

• Developing the technical capacity of the Unit in the field of its competences,
• Defining and implementing methodologies and methods with a view to promote high level standards in the operations and further analysis,
• Defining and setting up the ICT platform and tools which prove to be necessary for supporting operational activities and ensuring efficient data management,
• Facilitating data exchange and promoting best practises between actors involved, in particular the Commission and the Member States, in the operations under the responsibility of the Agency,
• Ensuring effective planning and management of the activities of the Unit.

Qualifications and experience required

A. Eligibility criteria

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

• At least, 15 years of professional experience (following the award of the university degree) in positions related to the aforementioned duties, with/and at least 5 years of professional experience of management of human resources or financial management or both;

• To have an excellent command of spoken and written English, together with a good knowledge of at least one other official language of the European Union;
• To have proven abilities to use electronic office equipment (word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail, internet, etc.).

B. Selection criteria

Essential:

• Excellent knowledge of the EU decision making and legislative processes and of EU legislation and policies in the field of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs;
• Strong interpersonal skills and sense of initiative and responsibility, preferably developed in negotiations at international level;
• Excellent communication skills and ability to communicate effectively in English, including ability to produce writing papers and reports ;
• Excellent ability to set priorities, quality management, analytical capacity, forward looking abilities ;
• Excellent capacity to motivate, observance of diversity of a multidisciplinary team, negotiating skills.

  Advantageous:

• Good knowledge of relevant international and regional organisations involved in the field and their working methods and procedures;
• Masters degree in Computer Science;
• Good knowledge of Spanish ;
• Working experience in EU Institutions and /or bodies.

Job description

Overall purpose:

To assist the Head of Unit MCS- Monitoring, Control and Surveillance- in the definition and implementation of relevant methodologies in the field of control and inspection.

Functions and Duties:

Reporting to the Head of Unit MCS, the Assistant for Control and Inspection Methodologies will be responsible for:

• Assisting the Head of Unit MCS in the definition and implementation of relevant guidelines and procedures with a view to ensure sound management of control and inspection activities;
• Assessing and promoting best practises and high quality standards for methodologies in the field;
• Assisting in the development of a quality management policy for control and inspection activities;
• Reporting on the relevance and effectiveness of methodologies and methods in place;
• Assisting in the budget and financial management of deployed activities in the field.

Qualifications and experience required

A. Eligibility criteria

• A level of secondary education attested by a diploma giving access to post-secondary education or a level of post secondary education of an official duration of the three years attested by a diploma;
• At least 9 years of professional experience in a domain relevant to the abovementioned duties;
• At least 5 years of professional experience in a domain relating to the implementation and compliance with the Common Fisheries Policy;
• To have a thorough knowledge of English and at least one other official language of the European Union.

B. Selection criteria

Essential:

• Sound knowledge of fishing strategies and legal restrictions in relation to MCS;
• Ability to draft reports, notes and to give presentations;
• Ability to communicate clearly and to present complex matters in a comprehensive manner;
• Ability to adapt and deal with different types of stakeholders;
• Commitment to demonstrate and promote high quality service standards.

Advantageous:

• Sound knowledge of quality management methods and tools;
• Knowledge of a third EU language;
• Experience in fisheries inspection and control.

Job description

Overall purpose:

To liaise with staff of the Agency and promote professional development by means of individual or collective actions of counselling or training in order to make possible a high degree of staff qualification, motivation, matching the job and adaptability to new requirements.

Functions and Duties:

Reporting to the Head of Unit A - Resources - the Assistant for Career Development of staff will be responsible for:

• Providing counselling services to all interested staff members, as well as guidance at entry into service;
• Assisting personnel on probation (reassignments, advice, recommendations);
• Assisting in the annual Career Development Review exercise;
• Providing advice and support to the Management for setting up career development plans and reports for the staff;
• Setting up and implementing the Agency’s training plan, including the management of the relevant budget;
• Monitoring performance and taking remedial action, where necessary, at individual and team level;
• Preparing and implementing guidelines for professional mobility of staff;
• Assisting the Management in the redeployment exercise and in the monitoring of sensitive posts;
• Assisting the Human Resources Officer in the management of rights and obligations of staff.

Qualifications and experience required

A. Eligibility criteria

• A level of secondary education attested by a diploma giving access to post-secondary education or a level of post secondary education of an official duration of three years attested by a diploma;
• At least 9 years of professional experience in a domain relevant to the abovementioned duties;
• At least 5 years of professional experience in a domain relating to the implementation and compliance with the EU Staff Regulations and rules;
• To have a thorough knowledge of English and at least one other official language of the European Union.

B. Selection criteria

Essential:

• Excellent coordination and organisational skills;
• Excellent knowledge of EU Staff Regulations and rules;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills;
• Commitment to demonstrate and promote high quality service standards;
• Excellent knowledge of MS Office software, internet;
• Ability to draft notes and reports.

Advantageous:

• Sound knowledge of Spanish;
• Sound knowledge of or willingness to learn financial procedures applicable in the Agency;
• Working experience in EU Institutions and/or bodies