Policy Adviser – Social & EU Public Affairs

Policy Adviser – Social & EU Public Affairs

Full-time

CER – Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies

Brussels, Belgium

The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) is currently seeking to hire a motivated and experienced Policy Adviser – Social & EU Public Affairs to join its team.

General responsibilities:

Reporting to the Executive Director and working closely with the EU Public Affairs and Communications departments, the Policy Adviser – Social & EU Public Affairs’ main responsibility will be to implement an effective Public Affairs strategy targeting the EU Institutions mainly in the fields of transportation, environment, climate change, energy, digitalisation, consumer rights and internal market, as well as to coordinate and provide input to social dialogue activities and deliverables.

Key responsibilities:

Public Affairs:

• Pro-actively following issues of interest for CER in the Commission, Council and European Parliament, monitoring procedures, timelines and debriefing colleagues and CER members;
• Monitoring the political and policy debate and ensuring distribution of relevant information to colleagues and CER members;
• Developing and maintaining a personal network with the key players in the EU institutions;
• Contributing to CER communication activities, among which events, the CER internal newsletter, social media and other CER publications;
• Foster and coordinate multi-stakeholder (national governments, EU Institutions, EU associations, international companies, NGOs) alliances to achieve common strategic goals;
• Promote and maintain regular exchanges with EU Institutional actors to create awareness about the association’s positions.

Social Affairs:

• Organising and coordinating the core work of the HRD group (e.g. bi-annual meetings);
• Monitoring the latest legislative developments on social issues at EU level and informing the HRD group accordingly;
• Preserving the relationship with trade unions on all relevant topics and supporting CER activities in the Social Dialogue with the Trade Unions;
• Communicating internally and externally on the HRD group´s activities;
• Contributing to CER´s participation in Commission funded projects and negotiations;
• Representing CER in various social platforms;
• Expanding CER members’ awareness about the HRD activities and thereby the participation in the HRD Group meetings;
• Maintaining a connection with other association’s Safety department/Human Factors working groups.

Required skills and qualifications:

• 3 to 5 years of relevant professional experience (either in the Commission, Parliament, Council and Member States’ Permanent Representations, or by representing private sector’s interests in the EU arena);
• Solid knowledge of the European Union’s decision-making processes, legislative procedures and actors;
• Full professional proficiency in English with excellent writing skills. Any additional major European language, in particular German and/or French, is considered a plus;
• Excellent interpersonal and organisational skills;
• A flexible and proactive attitude to work combined with an autonomous working style;
• An entrepreneurial outlook and solution-oriented attitude;
• Ability to thrive under pressure and keep to tight deadlines;
• Team player, able to build good working relationships with colleagues;
• Recognised commitment to ethics and transparency.

We offer a multi-cultural, dynamic and professionally enriching working environment.

Terms and conditions are competitive, depending on the experience and qualifications of the candidate.

Qualified candidates should send a CV and a maximum one-page cover letter electronically to jobs@cer.be in the format LastName_FirstName_JobTitle.pdf.

Applications will be treated in confidence.

The closing date for applications is 23 August 2024.

The Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) brings together close to 70 railway undertakings, their national associations as well as infrastructure managers and vehicle leasing companies. CER members represent 71% of the European rail network length, 76% of the European freight business and 92% of rail passenger operations in Europe.

CER’s role is to represent the interests of its members on the EU policy-making scene, in particular to support an improved business and regulatory environment for European railway operators and railway infrastructure companies.