Recruitment General Information
Please note that the information provided below is of a general nature and you should refer to each call for application for more detailed criteria regarding the requirements needed for the position in question.
Candidates must be nationals of a Member State of the European Union, or of Iceland or Norway, on condition that they have full rights as a citizen.
Candidates must have fulfilled any obligations imposed on them by laws concerning military service and meet the character requirements for the duties involved.
For each selection procedure, candidates must refer to the instructions published in the call for applications. Each call for application contains the details of the profile sought by the Agency and the requirements which will solely be taken into consideration for the post.
The Selection Process
All candidates will receive an acknowledgement of receipt for their application. For each selection process, a Selection Committee is nominated. The Selection Committee will evaluate all applications against the eligibility criteria and score against the selection criteria required in the vacancy notice. The selected candidates will be invited to pass one or several oral/written exams related to the job profile and to take part in a selection interview.
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.
During the recruitment phase, the candidates will be evaluated by the Selection Committee. Following the interview and tests, the Selection Committee will propose a list of the most suitable candidates to the Appointing Authority (Executive Director). The Appointing Authority will select the successful candidate/s and inform him/her accordingly.
All candidates will receive an information letter informing them of whether they have been successful, placed on a reserve list or unsuccessful.
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.
If a reserve list is established, it will remain valid for a period of 1 year following its establishment and may be extended. Therefore, candidates whose names are put on a reserve list could be offered a contract during this period of time.
Please note that a selection process may take several months to be completed and that no information will be released during this period.
Eligibility of candidates invited to the interview
Education, certificates and diplomas
Candidates must be able to provide copies of certificates or diplomas to show that they have completed studies of the level required by the notice of the selection procedure. The first degree/diploma obtained by the candidate giving access to the recruitment category and being relevant to the notice in the selection procedure is counted for admission to the selection procedure.
In the case of specialist or further training, candidates must specify whether the course was full-time or part-time, which subjects were covered and the official length of the course.
Only diplomas issued by EU Member State authorities and diplomas recognised as equivalent by the relevant EU Member State bodies are accepted. If the main studies took place outside the European Union, the candidate’s qualification must have been recognised by a body delegated officially for the purpose by one of the European Union Member States (such as a national Ministry of Education). This will enable the Selection Committee to accurately assess the level of the qualifications.
Experience
Paid professional experience shall be taken into account and is counted only from the time the candidate obtained the certificate or diploma required for admission. Where additional periods of training and study are accompanied by periods of professional activity, only the latter shall be considered as professional experience.
Candidates must provide supporting documents confirming the length and nature of their professional experience. If, for reasons of confidentiality, a candidate is unable to provide the necessary statement for their current employment, he/she must provide photocopies of the contract, the letter of recruitment and/or the first/last payslip.
Freelance or self-employed candidates must provide either a practicing certificate (or equivalent), or a copy of the entry in the relevant trade register, or any other official document (for example a tax document) showing clearly the length of the relevant professional experience.
If candidates undertook a traineeship, they must provide proof of whether this was remunerated or not.
Linguistic requirements
The main working language in the field of maritime safety is English. Candidates must therefore have a very good command of oral and written English, 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.
The official languages are: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish.
Equal opportunities
The Agency applies a policy of equal opportunities and accepts applications without distinction on grounds of sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic characteristics, language, religious, political or other convictions or opinions, belonging to a national minority, financial situation, property, birth, disability, age, sexual orientation, marital status or family situation.
EMSA is an Agency focusing on gender balance and a harmonic workplace and strongly encourages the applications of women for the positions where they are underrepresented (Temporary Agent Administrators) and from men for the positions where they are underrepresented (Temporary Agent Assistants and Contract Agents FGI-III).
Pay and welfare benefits
Please refer to the benefits package document.
Requests for information and lodging a complaint
An applicant who would like further information concerning a particular decision of the selection procedure may send a request by e-mail 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: An applicant may lodge a formal 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 e-mail to Recruitment@emsa.europa.eu or registered mail at the following address:
Human Resources and Internal Support Unit
EMSA
Praça 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 at the address below or directly on Ombudsman’s website https://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/en/home.
However, 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.
Médiateur européen
1 avenue du Président Robert Schuman
CS 30403
F-67001 Strasbourg Cedex
France
Personal data protection
Any personal data provided by the Applicant shall be processed pursuant to 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. It shall be processed solely for the purposes of the recruitment exercise.
Should the Applicant have any queries concerning the processing of his/her personal data, (s)he shall address them to the data controller, the Head of Human Resources and Internal Support Unit.
The Applicant shall have right of recourse at any time to the European Data Protection Supervisor.
For more on personal data protection and related documents see the Personal Data Protection page.
