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-AD8-0716: HEAD OF SECTOR ICT
• FISH-CFCA-TA-AD10-0717: HEAD OF SECTOR DATA MONITORING AND ANALYSIS
• FISH-CFCA-TA-AST6-0718: ASSISTANT FOR DATA MONITORING AND ANALYSIS

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 offered positions.

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

The place of employment is Brussels, Belgium, where the temporary seat of CFCA is situated at present.

As decided by the European Council on 13 December 2003, the official seat of the Agency is in Vigo, Spain, where CFCA will be relocated from June 2008.  Applicants are informed that Staff members of CFCA will not be entitled to any additional indemnities than those already foreseen by the CEOS when the relocation in Vigo will take place.

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.
• You will be invited, if selected for an interview, to sign and date a declaration that information provided in the application documents is true and complete.

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, 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 encourages applications from women.

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 Thursday 31 January 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 admissions laid down in the publication notice when deciding whether of 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 Agency.

Furthermore, the following link gives you direct access to the Staff Regulations: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/personnel_administration/statut/tocen100.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.

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  co-ordinate and organise the definition and follow up of  ICT plans and programmes of the Agency.

Functions and Duties:

The Head of ICT, under the direct supervision of the Head of Unit A –Resources – and within a small team of both internal and external staff, will be responsible for:

• Management of the ICT team and budget
• Definition and implementation of the CFCA ICT Plan
• Responsible for the acquisition and functioning of equipment and systems with a view of ensuring consistency, security and permanence of ICT services
• Definition and implementation of all technical requirements and tools necessary for the operation of projects and databases of CFCA
• Definition and implementation of the security requirements tools and procedures necessary for the data management of CFCA
• Contribution to the development of the web site and intranet of the Agency
• Contribution for the operation of quality plans defined by the Agency
• Contribution to  the Work Plan of the Agency

A. Eligibility criteria

• University degree relating to the field covered by the duties concerned
• Professional experience, acquired after the award of the university diploma, of at least twelve years when the normal duration of the University education is four years or more, or of at least thirteen years when the normal duration of the university is three years.
• At least five years of the professional experience must be related to the functions
• To have a thorough knowledge of English and at least another official language of the European Union

B. Selection criteria

Essential:

• Excellent capacity to motivate, observance of diversity of a multidisciplinary team, negotiating skills
• Excellent ability to establish and maintain effective communication with colleagues
• Excellent command of spoken and written English and ability to communicate effectively in Spanish 
• Managing and controlling the use of financial resources
• Project and quality management methodologies (PMI, ISO 9000, etc.)
• Enterprise Information Systems (Web infrastructures, Workgroup, e-mail, finance, HR, etc.)
• Data and telecommunications technologies and markets
• Wide-area database applications
• Office automation tools, particularly Microsoft Office Suite of products

Others

• Proven management skills
• Experience of negotiating with suppliers
• Excellent communication skills, oral and written
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds
• Excellent sense of responsibility and initiative

Advantageous:

• Good knowledge of the Institutional Framework and functioning of the European Union
• EU ICT infrastructure especially applications such as SI2, SIC and their successors
• EU Tendering processes

Job description

Overall purpose:

To develop and implement systems for ensuring some processing of data exchanged between the Agency, the Member States and the Commission.

Functions and Duties:

Under the Head of Unit "MCS (Monitoring, control and surveillance of fishing activities) Methodology, monitoring and assessment", the Head of Sector Data Monitoring and analysis will lead a small team of 6 staff members for the setting up and maintenance of automated systems for Data monitoring and analysis in the field of operations of the Agency. He/she will be responsible for:

• The definition and programming of data processing and management plans for MCS (Monitoring and Control system)
• The relations with competent departments in the Members States and the Commission for MCS data processing and management
• The input and advice to the Commission's departments in charge of drafting Community legislation in the field of MCS
• The definition of quality and security requirements to be implemented in data processing for MCS
• The general coordination of data communications between Member States and the CFCA in the framework of the Agency's operations for ensuring consistency and efficiency
• The management of the budget dedicated to DMA

Qualifications and experience required

A. Eligibility criteria:

• University degree relating to the field covered by the duties concerned or professional training of an equivalent level
• At least 15 years of professional experience in a domain relevant to the abovementioned duties
• At least 5 years of professional experience of strategic advice and coordination of questions in MCS
• To have proven experience of negotiations at international level
• To have a thorough knowledge of English and at least another official language of the European Union

B. Selection criteria

Essential:

• In depth knowledge of activities relating to MCS
• Excellent negotiation and communication skills
• Experience in leading multinational teams
• Thorough knowledge of control and inspection methods in the Fisheries sector, notably VMS
• Experience in management of MCS data bases and analysis of MCS data
• Abilities to set up priorities and to draft reports and plans

Advantageous:

• Knowledge of EU Institutions ad legislation of Common Fisheries Policy
• Expertise in computer applications including satellite monitoring systems
• Ability to undertake frequent missions of more than one week duration

Job description

Overall purpose:

To assist the Director of the Agency in charge of Data Monitoring and Analysis for the definition and monitoring of procedures and methods of Data Management and data exchange.

Functions and Duties:

Under the Head of Unit "MCS Methodology, monitoring and assessment", the Assistant for Data Monitoring and Analysis will be responsible for:

• Assisting the Head of Sector Data Monitoring and analysis in the development and establishment of the Monitoring and Control systems MCS of the Agency
• Ensuring that systems and data bases are upgraded in accordance to users requirements
• Assisting in the liaison with the contacts in the involved organisations outside of the Agency
• Applying and reporting on the quality and security requirements set up by the Agency
• Assisting in the budget and financial management of systems and tools for MCS

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 another official language of the European Union

B. Selection criteria

Essential:

• Sound knowledge of fishing strategies and legal restrictions in relation to MCS (Monitoring, control and surveillance of fishing activities)
• 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 clients
• Commitment to demonstrate and promote high quality service standards

Advantageous:

• Sound knowledge of communication networks and technologies
• Knowledge of a third EU language
• Knowledge of EU legislation of Common Fisheries Policy