European Maritime Safety Agency (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 1990's along with a number of other important European maritime safety initiatives. EMSA was set up as the decentralised agency that would provide a major source of support to the European Commission and the Member States in the field of maritime safety, security and prevention of pollution from ships. The Agency was established by Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002 and subsequent amendments have refined and enlarged its mandate to cover among other measures, the efficiency of maritime transport.

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 and supports European cooperation on coastguard functions.

EMSA's activities can be broadly described as:

• providing technical and scientific assistance to the Member States and the European Commission in the proper development and implementation of EU legislation on maritime safety, security, prevention of pollution by ships and maritime transport administrative simplification;
• monitoring the implementation of EU legislation through visits and inspections;
• improving cooperation with and between Member States;
• building capacity of national competent authorities;
• providing operational assistance, including developing, managing and maintaining maritime services related to ships, ship monitoring and enforcement;
• carrying out operational preparedness, detection and response tasks with respect to pollution caused by ships and marine pollution by oil and gas installations;
• at the request of the European Commission, providing technical operational assistance to non-EU countries around relevant sea basins.

The Unit is responsible for visits to Member States, with focus on the operational implementation of EU maritime Regulations and Directives. This task is performed in close cooperation with the EMSA business units having specific responsibility for the relevant legislative instruments. It also carries out inspections of classification societies that survey and certify ships in international trade and that are acting as recognised organisations on behalf of Member States. These inspections are carried out world-wide and their results feed into the European Commission’s regular assessments of these organisations, as required by EU law.

In the area of Standards for Seafarers, the Unit is also responsible for inspections in third countries that train and certify seafarers thus eligible to work on ships flagged by EU Member States. It is also engaged in statistical review and analysis of data hosted by EMSA’s STCW-IS, the information system which stores information on certificates and endorsements of recognition. The Unit also provides assistance to the Commission and the Member States on IMO, ILO and human element related issues, using the experience gained in relation to the STCW Convention to support the implementation of the MLC Convention and other pertinent ILO instruments, and supporting initiatives that promote “social responsibility” in shipping and motivate young people towards seafaring professions.

In conducting its Visits and Inspections activity, the Unit implements a Quality management system duly certified in terms of the ISO 9001: 2015 Standard.

Under the responsibility of the Head of Unit 1.2, Visits & Inspections, Human Element, the successful candidate will support EMSA teams conducting visit and inspection activity in:

• the organisation and maintenance of their annual activity programmes;
• the preparation, organisation and tracking of visit- and inspection-related correspondence;
• the processing of information used in the preparation of the visits and inspections;
• the dispatch and archiving of visit and inspection reports in accordance with the applicable Document Management Policy and quality procedures;
• supporting the further development and populating of internal databases on technical findings arising from visits and inspections;
• the processing of data arising from said databases and from other sources of information i.e. Member State questionnaires as necessary;
• any other technical support to the tasks of the Unit as requested.

Qualifications and experience required:

A.1 Education:

• A level of post secondary education of an official duration of three years attested by a diploma, or;
• A level of secondary education attested by a diploma giving access to post-secondary education, and appropriate professional experience of at least three years.

A.2 Experience:

• At least three years of proven professional experience acquired after the award of the diploma when the normal duration of studies is three years. When the official duration of the post-secondary studies is less than three years, the difference in time is to be compensated by additional professional experience after the award of the diploma;
• At least six years of professional experience acquired after the award of the diploma for a secondary education giving access to post-secondary education. The three years mentioned in A.1. Education are included in this 6 year period.

A.3. 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.1. Essential

• At least three years of proven relevant professional experience related to the above mentioned functions and duties. Candidates should mention in their CV the range of tasks covered, the level of work done and their relevance to the functions and duties of this vacancy notice;
• A good knowledge of the work of EMSA, the European Commission and relevant European Union institutions. Candidates should specifically mention in their CV how this knowledge was acquired, referring to specific examples and their relevance to the functions and duties of this vacancy notice;
• Work experience in the Maritime sector. Candidates should specifically mention in their CV how this experience was acquired, the range of tasks covered, referring to specific examples, and their relevance to the functions and duties of this vacancy notice;
• Relevant professional experience in office organisation processes.  Candidates should specifically mention in their CV how this experience was acquired the range of tasks covered, referring to specific examples, and their relevance to the functions and duties of this vacancy notice;
• At least two years’ experience working with quality management systems. Candidates should specifically mention in their CV how this experience was acquired, the range of tasks covered, referring to specific examples, and their relevance to the functions and duties of this vacancy notice;
• Good digital skills and experience with the use of databases. Candidates should specifically mention in their CV how this experience was acquired, the range of tasks covered, referring to specific examples, and their relevance to the functions and duties of this vacancy notice.

B.2 Advantageous:

• Familiarity with EU maritime legislation;
• Good drafting skills. Candidates should refer to specific examples in their CV, and their relevance to the functions and duties of this vacancy notice.

Candidates must clearly indicate on their application how the essential and advantageous criteria have been achieved.

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.

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

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

Supplementary:

• Excellent communication and organisational skills;
• Very good sense of initiative and responsibility;
• Excellent analytical capacities;
• The ability to exercise discretion, judgement and a high level of confidentiality at all times.

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 his/her full rights as a citizen;
• Have fulfilled the obligations imposed on him/her 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.

It should be noted that due to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union on the 31/01/2020, candidates from the United Kingdom who do not hold the nationality of another European Union Member State, are not eligible for calls for applications at EMSA due to the fact that they do not fulfil the requirements of Article 12.2 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants, as appropriate, namely that they do not hold the nationality of a EU Member State.

The Technical Assistant will be appointed by the Executive Director, upon recommendation of the Chairperson of the Selection Committee.

This vacancy notice concerns a Temporary Agent position, pursuant to Article 2 f) of the Conditions of Employment of other servants of the European Communities.

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

The successful candidate will be recruited in the grade AST2 .

The basic monthly salary, before any deductions or allowances, weighted for Lisbon, at 1 July 2019 for grade AST2 first step is 2987,03EUR.

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 or second step of the indicated grade, depending on the duration of the acquired professional experience. 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.

Please note that in line with the Staff Regulations recruited candidates shall be required to demonstrate before their first promotion the ability to work in a third European Community language.

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.

EMSA is an Agency focused on gender balance and a harmonic workplace and strongly encourages the applications of women for the positions where they are underrepresented.

Candidates should ensure that they clearly indicate how they meet the selection criteria in their application and motivation letter.

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 accommodate 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.

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

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

Please be informed that due to the current COVID-19 situation, there is a possibility that the interviews and/or the written tests could be organised remotely. Further information on the organisation of the  test and interview will be provided upon invitation.

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, with the possibility of renewal. 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:

How to request for information: An applicant who would like further information or considers that he/she has grounds for complaint concerning a particular decision of the selection procedure may send a request by e-mail to recruitment@emsa.europa.eu preferably within 10 working days from the date he/she was notified.

EMSA Human Resources will forward the request to the Chairperson of the Selection Committee and the applicant will receive a reply as soon as possible.

How to lodge a complaint and/or an appeal procedure: An applicant may lodge a complaint under Article 90(2) of the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Communities and Conditions of employment of other servants of the European Communities by email to recruitment@emsa.europa.eu or registered mail at the following address:

Human Resources Unit

EMSA

Praca Europa 4

1249-206 Lisbon

Portugal

The time limit for initiating this type of procedure is three months (see Article 90(2) of the Staff Regulations as amended by Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1023/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2013, OJ L 287, 29.10.2013 from the time you become aware of the act allegedly prejudicing your interests.

Applicants can make a complaint to the European Ombudsman. Before submitting a complaint to the European Ombudsman applicants must already have contacted EMSA about the matter and used all the internal administrative options for review and/or complaints provided for in the Staff Regulations.

More information: https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/home

Personal Data protection

The processing of personal data in the Community institutions and bodies like agencies is regulated by Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC.

For more on personal data protection and related documents see the Personal Data Protection page.