The European Ombudsman’s mission is to help resolve complaints and ensure that the EU administration applies the highest standards of integrity, transparency, accountability and responsiveness. We do this by putting citizens and their rights at the heart of our actions and by fostering constructive dialogue with the EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies (‘EU IBOAs’), as well as engaging with other relevant stakeholders.
This important role provides people and organisations with a means of redress in situations where they consider that their concerns remain unresolved by the EU IBOAs concerned. It also empowers the Ombudsman to carry out own-initiative inquiries and to engage with the EU IBOAs and other stakeholders to proactively identify areas for improvement and address systemic issues. In doing so, the Ombudsman contributes to ensuring good administration and thus to strengthening the democratic standards and values on which the EU is founded.
The Office’s guiding principles are integrity, fairness, impartiality, independence and accountability.
Respect, openness, inclusiveness, collaboration and efficiency are our core values.
The European Ombudsman is a small, dynamic office with an establishment plan of roughly 75 posts and an annual budget of approximately EUR 16 million.
Its offices are located in Strasbourg and Brussels.
It offers a dynamic and respectful workplace including a good balance between professional and private life and a pleasant working atmosphere. The Office’s organisational structure encourages participation, facilitates skills’ development and our modern working tools allow for efficiency and flexibility.
We seek experienced and highly qualified professionals with a strong sense of integrity who are eager to contribute to the Ombudsman’s mission.
This job requires excellent understanding of the Ombudsman’s strategy and of the EU legal and institutional context. Very good coordination and communication skills as well as a strong sense of initiative and responsibility are essential. We value dynamic colleagues who take initiative and are at ease assuming responsibility. Collaborative work and service-orientation are essential. Commitment to maintaining a positive work environment and ability to resolve conflicts are also essential.
The Head of Unit is responsible for leading and managing a team of Inquiries Officers within the Directorate of Inquiries The post-holder ensures the effective handling of inquiries in line with the Ombudsman’s mandate, maintaining high standards of legal analysis, drafting, and procedural quality. The role contributes to the strategic objectives of the Office and supports the Director of Inquiries in delivering timely, impactful, and well-reasoned decisions.
As Head of Unit, you shall:
The Head of Unit reports to the Director of the Inquiries.
Brussels or Strasbourg depending on the needs of the service.
Applicants must, on the closing date for the receipt of applications:
When a post is to be filled by way of promotion (Article 29, paragraph 1a, point iii) of the SR), the concerned officials must demonstrate the ability to work in a third language (Article 45 § 2 of the SR) before their first promotion since their recruitment.
As the official seat of the European Ombudsman is in Strasbourg and the institution has offices in both Strasbourg and Brussels, very good knowledge of French will be an asset.
Before taking up their duties, candidates are required to identify and declare any potential or actual conflict of interest they may have in relation to the position offered, to allow the Office to take appropriate mitigating measures.
Personal data which candidates provide for the purposes of this selection procedure will be processed in accordance with 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.
In choosing the successful candidates the appointing authority shall be assisted by an Advisory Selection Committee. The decision appointing the Committee will be published on the Ombudsman’s website.
The Advisory Selection Committee will review the received applications with the help of its secretariat to identify all eligible applications
The Advisory Selection Committee will establish and adopt the list of eligible candidates.
The Advisory Selection Committee will initially evaluate and compare the qualifications, experience and motivation of all the applicants, on the basis of their applications.
The assessment will be based on the evaluation criteria mentioned in section ‘Knowledge and skills required’ above and the relative weight assigned to each of them by the Committee prior to the assessment.
The pass mark of the applications’ assessment is set at 75% of the total points in this first assessment step. Only the nine top candidates having passed the 75% threshold will be invited for an interview with the Advisory Selection Committee.
The Committee will interview the candidates meeting the above-mentioned conditions.
Before the interview candidates may be asked to draft a short text based on a situational case which may also be discussed during the interview.
The interviews will be conducted mainly in English. Knowledge of French will also be tested.
The Committee will establish a list of candidates having reached the 80% pass mark in the interview, in alphabetical order.
All shortlisted candidates will subsequently be invited to an interview with the Ombudsman. The Secretary-General will also attend the interview.
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