EEA/CA/2014/5

The European Environment Agency (EEA) is organising an open competition with a view to recruiting a contract agent to work as Project Manager in the field of WISE-Marine and further with a view to establishing a reserve list.

THE AGENCY:

The EEA is an Agency of the European Union (EU) and one of the decentralised EU bodies. The EEA aims to support sustainable development and to help achieve significant and measurable improvement inEurope’s environment, through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy-making agents and the public.

JOB DESCRIPTION:

The EEA is seeking to recruit an experienced marine analyst with expertise in developing information systems covering the marine environment as project manager for developing the marine component of the Water Information System for Europe (WISE-Marine), to support data analysis and GIS based modelling associated with EEAs assessments of the marine environment. Particular focus will be on developing the reference layers and data flows needed in support of marine assessments and will encompass observations made in the marine environment and associated indicators, maritime statistics, geographic information, and processed information such as that stemming from MS assessments.

As part of its mandate to develop policy relevant assessments, the EEA supports the implementation of the Marine Strategy framework Directive (MSFD). This Directive contains a legal obligation that data resulting from monitoring programmes and assessments to be made available to the EEA (MSFD, art 19.3), and EEA is engaged in numerous activities to develop a system that allows this to happen. The support activities include the development of a Marine information platform under WISE (WISE-Marine) based on the principles of the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) and INSPIRE, and which will encompass data, indicators and reported information stemming from the MSFD. The development of the platform is also linked to Copernicus, the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODNET) actions under Marine Knowledge 2020 and the Integrated Maritime Policy, and relevant research projects. In support of developing this platform, the Agency therefore seeks to reinforce its technical capacity in the marine data domain.

Under the responsibility of the Head of Group responsible for Marine Environment, reporting to the Head of Natural Systems and Vulnerability Programme, the Project Manager shall be responsible for developing a system for sharing and visualization of data made available from marine monitoring programmes and assessments under the MSFD, building on principles established under international agreements with Regional Sea Conventions and INSPIRE.

Suitable candidates should be familiar with the activities of the working group on Data, Information and Knowledge Exchange (WG-DIKE) and the Technical Group on Data (TG-DATA) under the Common Implementation Strategy of the MSFD, with SEIS and with INSPIRE, and well as one or more of the  EMODNET actions. Furthermore, technical capacities related to developing an information system and to handling GIS information will be requested. The system will be developed in collaboration with multiple stakeholders from the Eionet and EU Member States, the European Commission and International organisations, and will require networking with them.

The main tasks will involve developing technical requirements for the system with regards to sharing of data sets, indicators and maps relevant for regional and European Marine assessments, including visualisation and interpretation. While the main focus is on enabling the technical development of WISE-Marine, the post will require specific knowledge of the marine environment and pressures acting upon it, as well as considerable networking skills.

The position will entail the following tasks:

• Support the conceptual development and implementation of a marine information system under the umbrella of WISE (WISE-Marine) by supporting the delivery of data, indicators and reported information into the system;
• Support and develop EEA data exchange mechanisms agreed with the Eionet or in the context of the MSFD;
• Provide support and contribute to the building and servicing of information as part of the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) by linking to other areas in EEA where data management represents a core activity (organisation, integration, processing, assimilation, analysis, quality control, and dissemination), gradually building on INSPIRE;
• Support EEA activities in MSFD WG-DIKE as well as in TG-DATA, e.g. by developing relevant ideas or working documents for meetings;
• Support EEA marine activities in the domain of INSPIRE implementation and assist EEA Member Countries in their INSPIRE activities when relevant, and collaborate with other areas within EEA on developing a spatial data infrastructure;
• Support contribution to EEA marine assessments and maritime sector reports and contribute to communication activities towards EEA clients and the general public, e.g. in the form of reports, briefings, web and oral presentations;
• Help countries improve their reporting obligations and data flows in response to national and international obligations;
• Support EEA in developing GIS products and implementing GIS based assessment tools;
• Steer contributions from the relevant European Topic Centre on Inland, Coastal and Marine Water to the above functions;
• Organise meetings and workshops with experts from across Europe (including the European topic centres), in particular linking achievements and data infrastructure from other European bodies and research organisations to the water data centre and ecosystem assessments in WISE-Marine;
• Initiate and maintain the necessary networks and partnerships with key external institutional partners, such as the European Commission (DGs MARE, ENV, JRC and Eurostat), ICES, the Regional Sea Conventions, UN bodies, as well as EEA member countries (Eionet) and stakeholders in the field of maritime policy and marine environment.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:

Candidates applying must satisfy the following eligibility criteria on the closing date for the submission of applications:

a)   Successful completion of university studies attested by a degree relevant to the field concerned (e.g. marine biology, oceanography) of at least 3 years, plus 1 year of appropriate professional experience;

b)  A minimum of 3 years of relevant professional experience analysing the marine environment and developing information systems covering it after achieving the qualification set out above.

In addition, in order to be eligible a candidate must:

• Be a national of one of the member countries of the EEA (Member States of the European Union plusIceland,Liechtenstein,Norway,SwitzerlandandTurkey);
• Enjoy full rights as a citizen;
• Have fulfilled any obligations imposed by law concerning military service;
• Have a thorough knowledge of one of the languages of the EEA member countries and a satisfactory knowledge of another of these languages (corresponding to level B.2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for languages CEFR);
• Meet the character requirements for the duties involved;
• Be physically fit to perform the duties linked to the post.

Candidates should assess carefully and check before submitting their application whether they fulfil all the conditions for admission laid down in the vacancy notice, particularly in terms of qualifications and relevant professional experience.

SELECTION CRITERIA:

Essential:

• Skills in the analysis of marine and maritime data and their processing. This includes management of data flows and the development of marine or maritime indicators, and producing e.g. GIS based presentations of the results;
• Experience with developing IT architecture that supports sharing of data from many different sources, and using these data for common products;
• Experience with the MSFD implementation process, in particular the activities in WG-DIKE, as well as the Eionet marine and coastal NRC network;
• Working experience with INSPIRE;
• Good knowledge of written and spoken English;
• Ability to prioritise work and manage his/her responsibilities;
• Good organisational and interpersonal skills;
• Excellent communication skills;
• Excellent knowledge of the relevant advanced GIS and data management tools (e.g. Arc-info, Oracle, open source tools etc.) as well as the  main MS Office Software, namely Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.

Advantageous:

• Good knowledge of European policies and related environmental policies.

CONTRACTUAL CONDITIONS:

The successful candidate will be offered a Contract Agent contract in accordance with Article 3a) of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities. The duration of the contract will be for a limited period not exceeding four years with the possibility of being renewed once for a second period not exceeding four years.

Successful candidates who are recruited undergo an initial probation period of 9 months.

Please note that recruitment is done in the first step of the grade within Function Group IV to which the successful candidate qualifies, depending on the duration of the acquired professional experience.

For information on salary, please see information published under Contract Agents.

The place of work will be Copenhagen, Denmark.

It is brought to the particular attention of candidates that the provisions of Articles 11 to 26 of the Staff Regulations, concerning the rights and obligations of officials, shall apply by analogy to Contract Agents. These rules specify that:

“An official shall carry out his duties and conduct himself solely with the interests of the Communities in mind; he shall neither seek nor take instructions from any government, authority, organization or person outside his institution. He shall carry out the duties assigned to him objectively, impartially and in keeping with his duty of loyalty to the Communities.

An official shall not without the permission of the appointing authority accept from any government or from any other source outside the institution to which he belongs any honour, decoration, favour, gift or payment of any kind whatever, except for services rendered either before his appointment or during special leave for military or other national service and in respect of such service.”

For further information on the Staff Regulations and the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities see:

Staff Regulations

SELECTION PROCEDURE:

A Selection Committee is set up for the selection procedure. It consists of members designated by the Appointing Authority and the Staff Committee. The Selection Committee is bound by the principle of confidentiality as enshrined in Article 6 of Annex III to the Staff Regulations. This works in two ways: first, it imposes obligations to ensure equal treatment for candidates; and second, it seeks to protect the Selection Committee to ensure that its decisions are totally impartial.

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

Should the Selection Committee 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, the candidate will be disqualified.

The Selection Committee decides on those candidates who are admitted to the selection procedure in accordance with the requirements as specified under eligibility criteria. The applications of the candidates admitted to the selection procedure are reviewed to establish whether or not they show evidence of all requirements as specified under selection criteria. The Selection Committee will invite for an interview up to a maximum of 10 candidates that they deem best qualified. The interview will be held in English and the candidate’s knowledge of other languages will also be assessed during the interview. Candidates invited for an interview will be asked to undergo a written test in the area of expertise required for the post. The test and the interview will take place in Copenhagen (Denmark) where the EEA has its seat and where the place of employment is.

At the end of the interviews the Selection Committee will submit the list of suitable candidates to the Appointing Authority who will decide on the appointment of the successful candidate and the establishment of a reserve list for the post advertised or similar posts that may become available. This usually follows from follow-up recruitment interviews conducted by the Appointing Authority with the suitable candidates. Candidates shall note that inclusion on the reserve list does not guarantee recruitment. Recruitment will be based on availability of posts and budget.

The reserve list for this post will be valid until 31 December 2015 and may be extended at the discretion of the Appointing Authority.

Prior to contract signature, the successful candidate will be asked:

• to provide original or certified copies of all relevant documents proving his/her eligibility, including a police certificate confirming the absence of any criminal record;
• to undergo a compulsory medical examination to establish that he/she meets the standard of physical fitness necessary to perform the duties involved.

PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION:

Any personal data provided by the applicant shall be processed pursuant to European Regulation related to personal data protection, in particular Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movements of such data. This applies in particular to the confidentiality and security of such data.

Personal data shall be processed solely for the purposes of this selection procedure.

The applicant shall have the right of access to his/her personal data and the right to rectify or update any such data that is inaccurate or incomplete at any time during the application procedure. The right to rectify can only be exercised up to the closing date for submission of applications. However, inaccurate identification data may be rectified at any time during and after the application procedure. Any request for access or rectification of personal data shall be addressed in writing to the Human Management Resource Group at the address: European Environment Agency, Kongens Nytorv 6, 1050 Copenhagen K, Denmark, or at the e-mail address: recruitment.enquiries@eea.europa.eu.

The applicant can, upon request, be provided with their evaluation results at all stages of the selection procedure. The request must be submitted to the Human Management Resource Group at the address: European Environment Agency, Kongens Nytorv 6, 1050 Copenhagen K, Denmark, or at the e-mail address: recruitment.enquiries@eea.europa.eu.

The EEA does not make public the names of successful candidates on reserve lists. However, it is possible that, for the purposes of recruitment and related planning purposes, members of the EEA’s senior management team may have access to reserve lists and in specific cases, to the application of a candidate.

Should the applicant have any queries concerning the processing of his/her personal data, s/he shall address them to the Data Protection Officer of the EEA at the following e-mail address: dataprotectionofficer@eea.europa.eu

Applicants are entitled to have recourse at any time to the European Data Protection Supervisor (http://www.edps.europa.eu; EDPS@edps.europa.eu) if they consider that their rights under Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 have been infringed as a result of the processing of their personal data by the EEA.

For further detailed information please refer to the privacy statement available on the EEA website at the following address: http://www.eea.europa.eu/about-us/documents/data-protection-inventory (Annex 1 to Selection procedure for TA and CA – HR1).

EQUAL TREATMENT:

EEA is an equal opportunities employer and accepts applications without distinction on the grounds of gender, colour, racial, social or ethnic origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation, marital status or family situation, or any other status. Staff is recruited on the broadest possible geographical basis from among nationals of all EEA member countries.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE:

Interested candidates must apply by filling in electronically the application form below.

Please note that the address indicated on the form will be used as the location for travel for candidates invited to an interview.

To the application form must be attached:

• The European CV below duly filled in
• A letter of motivation

Application documents:

• Template Europass CV
• Instructions for Europass CV

NB: Failure to submit any of the required documents will lead to exclusion from the procedure.

Closing date for application: Wednesday 18 June 2014 at 12.00 noon (Central European Time)

Applications sent after this date will be rejected.

Please ensure that you observe the following:

1. Remember to take time zones into consideration when sending your application.
2. Remember to fill in the application form below.
3. Include a CV using the Europass template attached and a letter of motivation.
4. Ensure to specify in your CV exact starting and end dates of professional experiences (date/month/year) as well as percentage of work activity in case the experience is not full time.
5. Once your application has been submitted, you will receive an automatic reply.
6. It is your responsibility to keep the automatic reply message as proof of submission of your application.
7. Should you not receive an automatic reply message, please submit your application again.
8. Please do not leave it until the last minute to submit your application. Experience has shown that the system can become overloaded as the deadline for applications approaches and you may find it difficult to submit your application in time.
9. You may apply in any of the official languages of the European Union but the use of English is encouraged to facilitate the selection process.

REQUEST FOR REVIEW:

A candidate who feels that a mistake has been made regarding eligibility may ask to have his/her application reconsidered by sending, within 10 calendar days of the date of notification, a request for review, quoting the number of the selection procedure concerned to the Chairperson of the Selection Committee at the following address: European Environment Agency, Kongens Nytorv 6, 1050 Copenhagen K, Denmark, or electronically at the e-mail address: recruitment.enquiries@eea.europa.eu.  

The Selection Committee will reconsider the application and notify the candidate of its decision within 15 working days of receipt of the request for review.

APPEAL PROCEDURES:

If a candidate considers that he/she has been adversely affected by a particular decision, he/she can 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, at the following address:

Executive Director
European Environment Agency
Kongens Nytorv 6
1050 Copenhagen K
Denmark 

The complaint must be lodged within 3 months. The time limit for initiating this type of procedure starts to run from the time the candidate is notified of the act adversely affecting him/her.

If the complaint is rejected the candidate may bring a case under Article 270 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and Article 91 of the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Communities and Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities before:

The European Union Civil Service Tribunal

Postal Address:
L-2925Luxembourg 

Please note that the Appointing Authority does not have the power to amend the decisions of a Selection Committee. The Court has consistently held that the wide discretion enjoyed by Selection Committees is not subject to review by the Court unless rules which govern the proceedings of Selection Committees have been infringed.

It is also possible to complain to the European Ombudsman pursuant to Article 228(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and in accordance with the conditions laid down in the Decision of the European Parliament of 9 March 1994 on the regulations and the general conditions governing the performance of the Ombudsman’s duties, published in Official Journal of the European Union L 113 of 4 May 1994:

European Ombudsman
1 Avenue du Président Robert Schuman – CS 30403
F-67001StrasbourgCedex 

Please note that complaints made to the Ombudsman have no suspensive effect on the period laid down in Articles 90(2) and 91 of the Staff Regulations for lodging, respectively, a complaint or an appeal with the European Union Civil Service Tribunal under Article 236 of the EC Treaty.