Directorate: Directorate for Members, Plenaries, Strategy

The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the political assembly that represents around 1 million regional and local elected politicians at EU level. Through the work of six commissions and plenary session, our 329 members work and vote on political opinions on draft EU legislation, hold political debates and participate in the EU legislative process and agenda setting.

The Directorate for Members, Plenaries, Strategy (Directorate A) consists of four units with a total of around 50 officials and other staff members. The main tasks of the Directorate are to ensure strategic planning, horizontal coordination and foresight, to prepare and run the meetings of the Plenary Assembly, the Bureau and the Conference of Presidents and to facilitate effective relations with other EU institutions and national associations of local and regional authorities. As of 2022, the Directorate will also manage all protocol aspects relating to official ceremonies and events as well as the CoR's institutional correspondence.

Main responsibilities
Under the direct authority of the Secretary-General, the Director manages the Directorate for Members, Plenaries, Strategy.
In order to grant the highest degree of diversity of senior managers, in case of equal merit of several candidates, preference will be given to female candidates.

Duties
The main tasks of the Director for Members, Plenaries, Strategy include the following:

• contributing to the senior management team of the institution under the leadership and responsibility of the Secretary-General;
• providing full assistance to the work of all CoR statutory bodies: Presidency, Conference of Presidents, Plenary Assembly, Bureau and commissions;
• planning, organising, coordinating and streamlining the activities of the institution, granting a smooth organisation of meetings;
• providing optimal financial, logistical and technical services to the members through modern, digital tools;
• monitoring major developments and proposing strategic initiatives relating to the European political agenda and activities of the CoR;
• establishing effective inter-institutional relations and coordinating with other Directorates to ensure the best possible impact of the CoR in the EU legislative process;
• running the CoR documentation centre/library and organising the CoR foresight and research activities/studies in close cooperation with other Directorates, institutions, think tanks, universities and partners;
• coordinating all protocol related aspects of official ceremonies and events and organising the institutional correspondence of the institution in close cooperation with other services and the cabinets of the President and the Secretary General;
• maintaining optimum lines of communication with the CoR members and organising effective relations with the CoR's national delegations and European and national associations of local and regional authorities;
• organising the work of the CoR High-Level Groups on "European Democracy" and with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities;
• ensuring the quality of the work, internal communication and sound management of the Directorate's financial and human resources.

Key eligibility criteria
The selection procedure is open to all candidates who are a national of one of the Member States of the EU and have a professional experience of at least fifteen years in an area relevant to the position, at least five must have been acquired in a managerial post (type of post: head of unit or equivalent and higher). Candidates must have a thorough knowledge of one of the official EU languages as main language and at least a satisfactory knowledge of a second official EU language. A good knowledge (minimum B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages ) of English or French is required; at least a satisfactory knowledge of the other of these two languages will be considered as an asset.

Preference will be given to candidates possessing:

• Leadership skills:
  • leading multicultural teams (15 staff members and more) including feedback, staff assessment and development;
  • daily supervision of the work of managers, change management and modernisation of working methods.
• Negotiating and communication skills:
  • communication and public relations, animating networks and events;
  • negotiating projects involving several internal and external stakeholders of international dimension.
• Knowledge and experience relevant to the nature of the duties:
  • Working experience in organisation of political meetings and events, ideally acquired in an international body implying interpretation and use of voting systems;
  • Knowledge of the European Union's decision-making process and experience in the area of interinstitutional cooperation, preferably in a political environment;
  • Knowledge of the structure and of the functioning of the European Committee of the Regions;
  • Experience in dealing with the administrative and budgetary procedures, as well as the legal framework, governing the activities of the European institutions and bodies.

In response to Government orders restricting face-to-face contact during the COVID-19 pandemic, the CoR has implemented a remote candidate screening and flexible remote work policy.
The application files must be submitted by deadline. For the full list of eligibility and selection criteria, the contents required in the application file and further information on the screening process, please refer to the full vacancy notice on the apply link.