EMSA

The European Maritime Safety Agency was established for the purpose of ensuring a high, uniform and effective level of maritime safety, maritime security as well as prevention of and response to pollution by ships within the EU.

The idea of a European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) originated in the late 1990s along with a number of other important European maritime safety initiatives. EMSA was set up as the regulatory agency that would provide a major source of support to the Commission and the Member States in the field of maritime safety and prevention of pollution from ships.

The European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002, as amended, provides the legal basis for the establishment of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).

The Agency provides technical, operational and scientific assistance to the European Commission and Member States in the fields of maritime safety, maritime security, prevention of, and response to, pollution caused by ships as well as response to marine pollution caused by oil and gas installations.

The Agency also contributes to the overall efficiency of maritime traffic and maritime transport.

The Agency may upon the request of the Commission provide technical assistance including the organisation of relevant training activities to States applying for accession to the Union and to European Neighbourhood partner countries.

Unit B.3 is responsible for providing technical assistance to the European Commission and the Member States on matters regarding the implementation and enforcement as well as possible amendments to EU legislation on Port State Control, Prevention of Pollution from ships and protection of the Environment. It is also responsible for training and capacity building activities, including assistance to Enlargement Countries and beneficiaries of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). It also hosts the Management Unit of EQUASIS.

B.3.1 TRAINING AND COOPERATION

B.3.1 provides training and technical assistance to EU Members States, Iceland and Norway through seminars, training sessions, sharing best practices and e-learning with the objective to further improve the effective and harmonised implementation of relevant EU maritime legislation. This includes the training for PSC Officers within the Paris MoU region as mentioned in Directive 200916/EC. B.3.1 also provides training and technical assistance to Enlargement countries and to the beneficiary countries of the European Neighbouring Policy (ENP).

B.3.2 MARINE ENVIRONMENT AND PORT STATE CONTROL

B.3.2 provides technical and scientific assistance to the Commission and Member States in the field of prevention of pollution caused by ships and promotion of sustainable shipping. This includes the development, implementation and enforcement of existing or proposed international and EU legislation(e.g. port waste reception facilities, minimising waste on board ships, ship recycling, air pollution (SOx, NOx), alternative emission abatement methods, alternative fuels and cleaner power technologies, greenhouse gas emissions and implementation of the MRV regulation, ballast water management, leachates from anti fouling paints, sanctions for ship source pollution and the rules on liability and compensation). B.3.2 is also responsible for technical assistance regarding the implementation of Directive 2009/16/EC as amended (Port State Control). This includes the participation in all bodies of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control.

B.3.3 SHIP INSPECTION SUPPORT

B.3.3 is responsible for the development, hosting and maintenance of tools to support the enforcement and monitoring of relevant EU legislation and Ship Inspection activities, such as THETIS, THETIS-EU, THETIS-MRV, RuleCheck, and MaKCs, the Agency’s eLearning platform. B.3.3 is also responsible for the analysis and dissemination of safety and environment related information on ships and their operations, using in-house tools as available, and the production of objective, reliable and relevant statistics and trend analysis for the benefit of the Agency, the Commission, the Member States and the maritime community more in general. It also hosts the Management Unit of Equasis and ensures its daily running.

Under the responsibility of the Head of Unit B.3 'Environment & Capability Building' the Project officer for Technical Assistance to ENP Partner countries will be responsible for:

• Supporting the implementation of the Project activities and any other European Neighbouring Policy related activities;
• Developing and maintaining contacts with the focal points for the Project’s beneficiary countries;
• Maintaining stakeholders contacts in the project related database;
• Preparing and delivering training activities based on EU and international maritime legislation in the field of safety, security and environmental protection;
• Preparing procurement procedures related to the Project;
• Drafting newsletters, reports of activities and keeping updated the webpage dedicated to the Project;
• Updating the EMSA website with relevant project related information;
• Cooperating with the “Financial and Administrative Officer” for the organisation and the administrative/logistical preparation of technical events stemming from the terms of reference of the Project such as meetings, missions, etc.

A. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Qualifications and experience required:

A.1. Education and professional experience:  

A level of education which corresponds to completed university studies of at least three years attested by a diploma, and appropriate professional experience of at least one year. 

A.2. Language skills:

The main working language in the field of maritime safety is English. Candidates must therefore have a very good command of oral English, as well as in writing, with a satisfactory knowledge of at least one other official language of the European Union to the extent necessary for the performance of the above mentioned duties.

B. SELECTION CRITERIA

B.1 Essential:

• 4 years of working experience related to the implementation  of International and European Maritime legislation, including the one year of experience mentioned in A.1;
• 1 year of working experience with a maritime administration.

B.2 Advantageous:

• Previous involvement in international cooperation projects and activities;
• Very good knowledge of European legislation in the field of maritime safety, security and environmental protection and EU institutions;
• Very good knowledge of IMO and ILO and their main conventions;
• Proven skills in preparing and delivering presentations (pls. give examples in your application);
• Good knowledge of French and/or Arabic and/or Russian language;
• Previous working experience with EU institutions/multicultural environment.

The advantageous criteria will be considered by the Selection Board depending on the number of applicants meeting the essential criteria.

Applicants must meet the required eligibility criteria concerning the required educational qualifications and years of experience, as well as the essential criteria by the deadline for this call for applications.

In addition to the requirements above, candidates invited to the interview and test phase may also be assessed against the following supplementary requirements:

Supplementary:

• Ability to present complex matters in a simple way;
• Very good computer skills in MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook.

In order to be eligible the candidate must:

• Be a national of one of the Member States of the European Union or of Iceland or Norway;
• Be entitled to your full rights as a citizen;
• Have fulfilled the obligations imposed on you by the laws concerning military service;
• Meet the character requirements for the duties involved and
• Be physically fit to perform the duties linked to the post.

The Reserve List for a Project Officer for Technical Assistance to ENP Partner Countries will be established by the Executive Director, upon recommendation of the Chairperson of the Selection Committee.

Candidates are advised that if they are offered a post, it is anticipated that the duration of the first contract will be for four years, the exact length and date of entry of the contract being subject to the signature of the relevant Grant Contracts with DG NEAR for technical assistance to ENP countries. Only one further renewal to  a contract of employment may be granted, subject to the length of the grant contract for technical assistance to ENP countries and/or subject to a renewal of the grant contract for technical assistance to ENP countries.

If recruited from the reserve list, the successful candidate will be recruited in function group IV (FGIV). The grade will be determined in accordance with the number of years of professional experience.

The successful candidate will be appointed as a Contract staff member under the provisions of Title IV, Article 80 of the Conditions of Employment of other Servants of the European Communities.

The basic monthly salary for the entry grade of Function Group IV, (Function Group IV, Grade 13, Step 1) before any deductions or allowances, weighted for Lisbon, at 1 July 2015 is 2,571.39 EUR.

In addition to the basic salary, staff members may be entitled to various allowances, such as an expatriation allowance (16% of basic salary), household allowance, dependent child allowance and education allowance. The salary is subject to a Community tax deducted at source and staff members are exempt of national taxation.

Please note that recruitment is done in the first step of the indicated grade.

EMSA offers a comprehensive welfare package including pension scheme, medical, accident and occupational disease insurance coverage, unemployment and invalidity allowance. Further information regarding rights and conditions of employment can be found in the following document:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CONSLEG:1962R0031:20140101:EN:PDF

The place of employment is Lisbon, Portugal.

Candidates are advised that if they are offered a post, and accept, they must undergo a compulsory medical examination to establish that they meet the standard of physical fitness necessary to perform the duties involved.

Candidates must submit their application electronically solely via the EMSA website within the deadline. Applications by any other means (hard copy or ordinary e-mail) or submitted after the deadline will not be accepted.

All candidates will receive an acknowledgement of receipt for their application.

EMSA is an equal opportunities employer and encourages applications from all candidates who fulfil the eligibility and selection criteria without any distinction whatsoever on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age, marital status or other family situation or sexual orientation.

You 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.

For each selection process a Selection Committee is nominated. The selection is carried out in two phases:

1. In the first phase all eligible applications will be evaluated by the Selection Committee and scored against the selection criteria. Please note that non-compliance with at least one of the essential selection criteria will result in the exclusion of the candidate from the selection process. Advantageous criteria constitute additional assets and will not result in exclusion, if not fulfilled. The advantageous criteria will be considered by the Selection Committee depending on the number of applicants meeting the essential selection criteria.

On this basis, the Selection Committee will invite to the interview and to the test phase the best qualified candidates (maximum of 15), on condition that they have achieved at least 60% of the highest possible score during the evaluation of applications. Should the case arise that there are various candidates scoring the same number of points in the 15th ranking, the number of candidates to be invited will be increased accordingly to accomodate this. 

2. In the second phase, the selected candidates will be invited to pass one or several written tests related to the job profile and to take part in a selection interview.

During this recruitment phase, the selected candidates will be evaluated by the Selection Committee. After the interviews and tests, the Selection Committee will draw up a list of the most suitable candidates to be proposed to the Appointing Authority. Only candidates receiving at least 70% of the maximum points at interview and at the test phase will be included in the list of the most suitable candidates. The Appointing Authority will select the successful candidate and decide whether to also adopt a reserve list. The successful candidates will be informed accordingly.

All candidates will receive an information letter of the outcome of their application.

Please 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.

The reserve list will remain valid for a period of 1 year following its establishment. Therefore candidates whose name will be put on a reserve list could be offered a contract during this period of time. Please note however that inclusion in the reserve list does not guarantee recruitment.

Please note that the selection process may take several months 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 in the e-recruitment.

Please note that once you have created your EMSA profile, any correspondence regarding your application must be sent or received via your EMSA profile.

For any prior enquiry, please refer to the FAQ (Frequently asked questions) section, or send an e-mail to recruitment@emsa.europa.eu

Requests for information and appeal:

An applicant who would like further information, or considers that he/she has grounds for complaint concerning a particular decision may, at any point in the selection procedure, request further information from the Chairperson of the Selection Committee.
For information on how to lodge a complaint and/or an appeal procedure, please consult the ‘General Information for Recruitment’ overview on our website for more information:
http://www.emsa.europa.eu/recruitment-info.html