Project Manager – Environmental Economics and Policies

Reporting to the Head of Programme for Integrated Environmental Assessments, and to the Head of the relevant group inside this programme, the Project Manager shall be responsible for supporting major assessments with economic analysis relevant to the environmental policy priorities of the European Union.

Duties will include the assessment of the environmental, health, ecological and social impacts of economic activities e.g. of the industrial, energy, transport, household and food/agricultural sectors; and of the same range of impacts from environmental policy measures.

The suitable candidate will adopt a comprehensive, integrated and pluralistic approach to the analysis of environmental problems and policy solutions, an approach that will be characterized by systems perspectives, an appreciation of the broad physical and biological contexts, and a focus on long-term sustainable development. Emphasis will also be given to financial, behavioral and ethical issues.

The position will entail the following tasks:

• Lead on the area of Ecological Tax Reform including empirical assessments, analyses of existing policies, and identification of future options;
• Lead on monitoring, analyses and assessments of the use of economic/market-based instruments for environmental purposes, in particular taxation, subsidies, and tradable permits, liability regimes, as well as analyses and assessments of their interaction with regulatory and informational measures;
• Support EEA activities on greening the European economy through analysis of the potential across the different sectors that can deliver most benefits;
• Support analyses and critical assessments of relevant methodologies and their use by decision-makers on for example, cost-benefit, multi-criteria, and cost-effectiveness analyses, impact assessments, and, retrospective and prospective approaches to extended and social CBA;
• Support analyses of the relationship of environmental performance, social performance and economic performance across the EU;
• Support assessments of methods for valuing non-market goods and services and the development of value transfer techniques;
• Liaise with the European Commission, OECD, UNEP and the EEA’s network Eionet as appropriate in carrying out the above tasks.

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 (eg. environmental economics, ecological economics, political science), where the normal duration of university education is 4 years or more OR successful completion of university studies attested by a degree relevant to the field concerned (eg. environmental economics, ecological economics, political science), where the normal duration of university education is 3 years, plus 1 year of professional experience;

b)      A minimum of 9 years of relevant professional experience after achieving the degree 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 plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey);
• 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 to the extent necessary for the performance of the duties pertaining to the post;
• Meet the character requirements for the duties involved;
• Be physically fit to perform the duties linked to the post.

Selection criteria:

Essential:

• Proven experience of delivering analyses in the European policy context that is relevant to some or all of the tasks above;
• Proven ability to work and deliver quality outcomes as part of inter-disciplinary teams;
• 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 main MS Office Software, namely Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.

Advantageous:

• Published examples of analysis that have made a direct contribution to influencing decision-making processes either at the local, regional, national or European levels;
• Academic and work experience that supports an ability to work on inter-disciplinary analysis.

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 time period not exceeding three years, with the possibility of being renewed once for the same period.

The basic monthly salary of a Contract Agent before any deductions or allowances, on 1 July 2008 amounts to:

Function Group IV, grade 14 (step 1)                               EUR 3,428.49

Function Group IV, grade 16 (step 1)                               EUR 4,389.04

To this basic salary a weighting factor is to be added (39.4%) for Denmark from 1 July 2008. The salaries of Contract Agents are subject to a community tax deducted at source. They are exempt from national tax.

The place of work will be Copenhagen, Denmark