Vacancy notice: Press and Information Officer (Local Agent — group 1). Deadline — 14 August 2020

Press and Infor­ma­tion Offi­cer

at the Del­e­ga­tion of the Euro­pean Union to the Repub­lic of Belarus in Min­sk

The dead­line for sub­mit­ting appli­ca­tions is 14 August 2020.

Are you inter­est­ed in strate­gic com­mu­ni­ca­tion in the con­text of inter­na­tion­al rela­tions? Are you keen to con­tribute to rep­re­sent­ing the EU’s inter­ests and val­ues in Belarus?

We are

The Euro­pean Union (EU) is a unique eco­nom­ic and polit­i­cal union between 27 Euro­pean coun­tries. It plays an impor­tant role in inter­na­tion­al affairs through diplo­ma­cy, trade, devel­op­ment aid and work­ing with glob­al organ­i­sa­tions. Abroad, the EU is rep­re­sent­ed through more than 140 diplo­mat­ic mis­sions, known also as EU Del­e­ga­tions, which have a sim­i­lar func­tion to those of an embassy.

The EU Del­e­ga­tion to the Repub­lic of Belarus is one of those 140 del­e­ga­tions. Its man­date includes pro­mot­ing the polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic rela­tions between the EU and Belarus, estab­lish­ing close dia­logue with all stake­hold­ers (author­i­ties, civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions, uni­ver­si­ties, local media) on eco­nom­ic, social, gov­er­nance, human rights and oth­er pol­i­cy issues. We also state and explain the EU’s posi­tion to the nation­al author­i­ties and to local Mem­ber States Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and raise aware­ness about the EU, its insti­tu­tions and pro­grams imple­ment­ed in Belarus.

What we offer

A post of a Press and Infor­ma­tion Offi­cer with­in the Polit­i­cal, Eco­nom­ic, Press and Infor­ma­tion Sec­tion of the EU Del­e­ga­tion to the Repub­lic of Belarus, start­ing in Sep­tem­ber 2020.

Upon recruit­ment, the suc­cess­ful can­di­date will occu­py a spe­cif­ic job func­tion as Press and Infor­ma­tion (P&I) Offi­cer, with a focus on strate­gic com­mu­ni­ca­tions. This job func­tion may change in accor­dance with the needs of the Del­e­ga­tion. 

The Polit­i­cal, Eco­nom­ic, Press and Infor­ma­tion Sec­tion of the Del­e­ga­tion is in charge of devel­op­ing analy­sis and rec­om­men­da­tions for our Head Quar­ters in Brus­sels relat­ed to:

• Polit­i­cal, social and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ments in the coun­try, includ­ing issues relat­ed to the evo­lu­tion of the civ­il soci­ety and the sit­u­a­tion with human rights;

• Belarus’ for­eign and secu­ri­ty poli­cies, includ­ing with­in the con­text of the East­ern Part­ner­ship;

• Press and Pub­lic Diplo­ma­cy, notably in terms of con­duct­ing infor­ma­tion envi­ron­ment assess­ment and rais­ing aware­ness about dis­in­for­ma­tion.

The P&I offi­cer will be ful­ly embed­ded in the work of the sec­tion, receive direct expo­sure to the EU’s activ­i­ties in Belarus and pro­vid­ed with a unique oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­tribute to com­bat­ting dis­in­for­ma­tion.

The suc­cess­ful can­di­date will per­form the fol­low­ing tasks under the super­vi­sion and respon­si­bil­i­ty of the Head of Sec­tion:

Main tasks:

• Analyse the infor­ma­tion envi­ron­ment and devel­op rec­om­men­da­tions for improv­ing the under­stand­ing in Belarus of the EU’s val­ues, poli­cies and pro­grammes based on fact-based infor­ma­tion and proac­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion;

• Estab­lish and main­tain a net­work of key infor­ma­tion-envi­ron­ment experts in Belarus who could sup­port the EU Del­e­ga­tion in its mon­i­tor­ing and aware­ness-rais­ing activ­i­ties;

• Design, imple­ment and coor­di­nate cam­paigns, local out­reach events and com­mu­ni­ca­tions projects on spe­cif­ic issues and pri­or­i­ties, includ­ing with a goal to address dis­in­for­ma­tion tar­get­ing the EU and its rela­tion with Belarus;

• Close­ly coop­er­ate with the EEAS Strate­gic Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Task Forces;

• Per­form oth­er tasks as des­ig­nat­ed by the Head of Sec­tion;

• Replace the oth­er Press and Infor­ma­tion Offi­cers in their absence.

Qual­i­fi­ca­tions or spe­cial require­ments:

Can­di­dates should:

• have com­plet­ed uni­ver­si­ty stud­ies of at least three years attest­ed by a diplo­ma prefer­ably in inter­na­tion­al rela­tions, polit­i­cal sci­ence, inter­na­tion­al rela­tions, jour­nal­ism, com­mu­ni­ca­tions, eco­nom­ics or oth­er relat­ed field;

• have at least three years of rel­e­vant pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence in com­mu­ni­ca­tions, prefer­ably in the inter­na­tion­al and mul­ti-cul­tur­al envi­ron­ment;

• have excel­lent Eng­lish lan­guage skills (C1 lev­el – Pro­fi­cient user);

• have excel­lent com­mand of the Belaru­sian and Russ­ian lan­guages

• have good ana­lyt­i­cal and draft­ing skills;

• have proven inter­est in EU affairs and the EU’s neigh­bour­hood poli­cies;

• be a nation­al of Belarus or a nation­al of a Mem­ber State of the Euro­pean Union hav­ing the right to live and work in Belarus;

Selec­tion cri­te­ria

Can­di­dates should:

• have expe­ri­ence in com­mu­ni­ca­tions and pub­lic diplo­ma­cy (e.g. strate­gic com­mu­ni­ca­tion, media rela­tions, cam­paign­ing, con­tent pro­duc­tion, mar­ket­ing, online mar­ket­ing, social media man­age­ment, devel­op­ment of audio-visu­al con­tent);

• have excel­lent com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills and the abil­i­ty to estab­lish and main­tain a net­work of con­tacts both with­in and out­side the Del­e­ga­tion, build­ing up con­struc­tive work­ing rela­tions with key part­ners in the coun­try;

• have strong draft­ing and ana­lyt­i­cal skills com­bined with sound judge­ment, rapid grasp of prob­lems and the capac­i­ty to iden­ti­fy issues and solu­tions;

• have knowl­edge of exter­nal rela­tions, inter­nal poli­cies and func­tion­ing of the Euro­pean Union;

• have the abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate clear­ly on com­plex issues and the capac­i­ty to per­form with accu­ra­cy and in a flex­i­ble man­ner a diver­si­ty of tasks in a com­plex insti­tu­tion­al envi­ron­ment.

Fur­ther­more:

• expe­ri­ence of work­ing in a team in a mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary and mul­ti-cul­tur­al envi­ron­ment;

• expe­ri­ence in pub­lic speak­ing;

• knowl­edge of addi­tion­al EU lan­guages 

 would be con­sid­ered as strong assets.

How to apply?

Please send the fol­low­ing doc­u­ments to the e‑mail address:

DELEGATION-BELARUS-RECRUITMENT@EEAS.EUROPA.EU (link sends e‑mail)

• a detailed Europass cur­ricu­lum vitae (CV) https://europa.eu/europass/en

• a cover/motivation let­ter

Please men­tion in the sub­ject of your e‑mail:

Press and Infor­ma­tion Offi­cer — Polit­i­cal, Eco­nom­ic, Press and Infor­ma­tion sec­tion

Impor­tant infor­ma­tion — The pro­ce­dure

The Del­e­ga­tion will not sup­ply addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion or dis­cuss the selec­tion pro­ce­dure by tele­phone: please address any queries con­cern­ing this pro­ce­dure to the e‑mail address: DELEGATION-BELARUS-RECRUITMENT@EEAS.EUROPA.EU (link sends e‑mail)

After the dead­line, the appli­ca­tions will be reviewed by a Selec­tion Com­mit­tee set up for this pur­pose. The Selec­tion Com­mit­tee will pre­pare a short-list of can­di­dates who are con­sid­ered to be the most suit­able for the post on the basis of a pre­lim­i­nary assess­ment of the infor­ma­tion pro­vid­ed in their appli­ca­tion let­ter and the sup­port­ing doc­u­ments.

After the eval­u­a­tion of all appli­ca­tions, short­list­ed can­di­dates will be invit­ed for an inter­view and pos­si­bly a writ­ten test.  Inter­views will be held in Min­sk, Belarus or via video-con­fer­enc­ing.

The can­di­dates who have not been short-list­ed will not be con­tact­ed indi­vid­u­al­ly; how­ev­er, the Del­e­ga­tion will use the same means of pub­li­ca­tion as for this Vacan­cy Notice to inform the remain­ing can­di­dates once the recruit­ment pro­ce­dure has been com­plet­ed and that a can­di­date has (or has not) been recruit­ed. 

• be med­ical­ly fit to per­form the required duties;
• enjoy civ­il rights and per­mits for employ­ment under local law.

Appli­ca­tions from non-eli­gi­ble can­di­dates will not be con­sid­ered. After the eval­u­a­tion of all appli­ca­tions, short­list­ed can­di­dates will invit­ed for an inter­view. In case the select­ed can­di­date is not able to present the required doc­u­ments, his/her can­di­da­cy will be reject­ed.

Please note that only short­list­ed can­di­dates will be con­tact­ed.

The dead­line for appli­ca­tions: 14 August 2020 at 23:59 Min­sk local time