Equipment summit 2005

CECE's first European Construction Equipment Summit 2005 will include analysis of how Europe's construction equipment industry can stay competitive, with presentations by CECE president Gösta Göransson; Tony Helsham, president and CEO, Volvo Construction Equipment; and Günther Verheugen, vice president, European Commission.

The second part of the summit, “European Economic Environment”will focus on worldwide trade barriers, including the World Trade Organisation's disputes over US and Chinese trade barriers.

Heinz Hilbrecht, director Trans-European Networks, will talk about the difficulties facing TENs projects and provide an overview of what can be expected during the next few years. Afterwards John Patterson, managing director and CEO of JCB, will speak about the needs of the equipment industry.

The third part will focus on environmental and technical regulations. Jos Delbeke, director air and chemicals, European Commission, will provide a comprehensive overview of the current situation. His responsibilities include “clean air”, chemicals and climate.

Hermann Ahls, secretary general of the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN), will talk about the relationship between European and ISO standards and how to protect European interests in relation to the aggressive US promotion of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards.

Jacques McMillan, head of Unit, European Commission Directorate-General Enterprise, will talk about how to improve European market surveillance, which ensures only products in compliance with European safety and environmental regulations are sold in Europe. The main challenge here is that market surveillance is a topic handled by the member states without any specific common rules. CECE is looking for external border controls.

Last, Johann Sailer, managing director of GEDA Dechentreiter, exchanges for market data through the Intercontinental Statistical Committee (ISC). Together with its sister associations from the US, Japan and Korea, it has created a system to provide monthly worldwide market data for the industry. The ISC, currently co-ordinated by CECE, will discuss the development of the system, look at measures to improve it and the data quality, while adapting the system to the needs of its users.

In addition to these meetings, there will be sessions for each of the CECE 'sections’, or product groups. Discussions will include common product-related topics, including the current market situation, sales statistics and specific technical issues.