Job Posting: EU Advocacy Lead Of The Financial Transparency Coalition

Do you care about stamping out corruption, money laundering and tax dodging? The Financial Transparency Coalition (formerly the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development) is looking for a dynamic individual, with a proven track record of achieving policy change, and ‘intelligence’ of the EU/Brussels environment and structure. This is an exciting opportunity to lead EU advocacy on an influential advocacy campaign to curb illicit financial flows. Further information about the Coalition can be found at www.financialtaskforce.org.

The next 18 months present important opportunities to influence EU legislation: The EU is now in a process to update its anti-money laundering directive, including by taking steps to increase transparency over the ownership of companies. Moreover the European Commission has launched an action plan to crack down on tax evasion and avoidance. There is also movement on the long stalled revision to the savings tax directive, which provides an opportunity to push for further steps automatic exchange of information.

This position involves leading the Coalition’s advocacy towards the EU. The successful candidate will lead an advocacy campaign towards the European Union’s review of the Anti-Money Laundering Directive (75%), and the Coalition’s advocacy towards the EU on other Coalition related areas (25%)

Key responsibilities:

• Carry out advocacy towards the EU institutions to influence the Anti-Money Laundering Directive
• Develop and maintain relationships with key European Commission staff, Cabinet members, Members of the European Parliament and Permanent Representative offices, NGOs, journalists and other private sector stakeholders relevant to the success of the campaign
• Coordinate a NGO coalition working to influence the Anti-Money Laundering Directive
• Revise and lead the implementation of the coalition’s advocacy strategy
• Energise and coordinate  strategic thinking  on automatic information exchange (AIE),
• Develop an AIE action plan, including identifying realistic targets and key ‘actors’ to help drive the  work forward
• Prepare advocacy notes and frequent updates for coalition members
• Write compelling advocacy materials for lobbying and the media
• Be prepared to travel on short notice, if necessary
• Other activities that are required to fulfil the role

Required qualifications/experience

• Excellent understanding of the EU co-legislative processes
• Advocacy experience within the EU
• Ability to help non-governmental organisations work together to achieve common aims
• Strong English written and verbal communications skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Ability to understand and articulate the Coalition’s issues
• Ability to work independently and on own initiative

Desirable experience:

• Knowledge of one or more EU languages other than English
• A background in anti-money laundering, anti-tax evasion or anti-corruption efforts
• Competence in an advocacy role with institutions at a high level
• Office and reporting: The advocacy lead will be hosted by the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad) in Brussels, and work closely with a policy team of Coalition members in Europe and the Coalition Manager in Washington DC.

Contract details:

18 months full-time contract with a possibility of extension, depending on performance and funding. There is a probation period of 3 months. Gross yearly salary of € 46,145 –€ 48,025, depending on experience. In addition there is a package of benefits including daily meal vouchers, hospitalisation insurance, travel insurance and contribution to pension plan.

Application instructions:
Please carefully read the key responsibilities and requirements, and the instructions below. We have designed these instructions to reduce the administrative burden on our teams so we can devote more time to our vital work. Therefore, we regret that we will ONLY accept applications that respect these instructions and will exclude applicants who submit general cover letters.

Send your CV (two pages maximum) with a cover letter of 2 pages or less in English. This cover letter should:

• be properly formatted, clearly and concisely written, and set out why you match the above job description.
• describe a concrete experience you had of designing and implementing an advocacy strategy to influence an EU process, preferably a co-legislative process. Please make sure you set out the steps or phases you went through, and how you tried to ensure a successful outcome.

Send your cover letter and CV:

a)     By e-mail only to apply@financialtaskforce.org Please format the subject line as “job application advocacy lead”.

b)     Please give the two files the following names: Surname_CV  and Surname_Cover [so if Peter Bloggs applied for a job we would expect files with the following names: Bloggs_CV and Bloggs_Cover]

Application deadline:

9 June before midnight Brussels time.

We will not be able to reply to all candidates. If you have not heard from us by 24 June, this means your application has been unsuccessful.

About the Financial Transparency Coalition:
The Coalition is a consortium of research and advocacy organisations and governments, Coalition members work together to implement the following five measures that would benefit the poor in developing nations and stabilise financial institutions in developed nations:

• Curtailment of mispricing in trade imports and exports;
• Country-by-country accounting of sales, profits, and taxes paid by multinational corporations;
• Confirmation of beneficial ownership in all banking and securities accounts;
• Automatic cross-border exchange of tax information on personal and business accounts;
• Harmonization of predicate offenses under anti-money laundering laws across all Financial Action Task Force cooperating countries.
• Six non-profit organisations are represented in the Coordinating Committee (CoCom) of the Coalition: Christian Aid, Eurodad, Global Financial Integrity/Center for International Policy, Global Witness, Tax Justice Network and Transparency International.