1998 was an important year for ECCE as it saw the change over of ECCE Presidents. After serving two three-year terms, Francois-Gérard Baron stepped down and ECCE Vice-President António Adão da Fonseca was elected new ECCE President. Previous Past-President Professor José Medem, now President of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations (WFEO) was there to witness the event, as was former Secretary General Graham Hornby.
Congratulations are the order of the day
José Medem and Hermann Sturm congratulate António Adão da Fonseca on becoming the new ECCE President
Season’s Greetings to everyone!
I was elected for one year only. You will soon have a chance to push me out just as I will soon have the opportunity to jump out! But you won’t and I won’t, for I will try hard to do a good job and I know that you will back me up all the way. Truly, I think ECCE, having grown quite quickly, must now move ahead into a new phase of development.
One good reason for accepting this job could be to feel great at being President after such distinguished European Civil Engineers as Jose Medem and Gerard Baron, but the true reasons are my belief in ECCE ideals and aims and my will to push them ahead.
Most Europeans do not realise the essential contribution to Civilisation Engineers have given to Mankind. Worse still, most European Civil Engineers are not aware that we should offer much more and that we must be at the forefront in assisting Europe advance its built Environment and protect the natural environment.
Promoting the highest technical and ethical standards is indeed our job. I am afraid we can not always state that Civil Engineers have the highest technical and ethical standards, but we must seek such standards eagerly, for they are the fundamental values of European Civilisation and they are paramount for the reputation and status of the profession as it faces the challenges of the years ahead.
Members of a Profession always have a common set of standards and goals. Otherwise they are simply a bunch of "nice" people. Well, we must recognise that some of us, Civil Engineers, need to be reminded of our common values and goals. This means a Code of Professional Conduct that is accepted throughout Europe is very much required. True, unwritten standards are often best, but it is also important to state clearly to society the limits of our profession practice. Furthermore, Civil Engineers should be able to draw from that Code the support for striving always towards those high technical and ethical standards. A top priority of our work in 1999 must therefore be preparation of a final draft of a Code of Professional Conduct for European Civil Engineers.
Antonio Adao da Fonseca,
Portugal, December 1998
The past year has seen ECCE's family enlarge to include more eastern countries. We had the pleasure to welcome Romania, Slovenia and Cyprus and we are expecting to soon enjoy having Estonia as one of our members. All these countries have a long tradition in civil engineering and will certainly bring a sound added value to our work.
Our participation in ECCREDI, especially within the TRA EFCT, has largely contributed to establishing a permanent role with the main pan-european organisations dealing with civil engineering as well as with DGXII at the European Commission. The second TRA workshop will take place in Brussels in November. The intention is to mobilise participants around the themes of development and quality, process management and construction technologies, construction and environment.
After the successful symposium in Finland, the applications of information technologies in civil engineering are part of ECCE's agenda.
Indeed we are expecting great benefits from ‘infoculture’ - the application of information and communication technologies.
Our involvement in environmental matters remains an important issue and we have initiated a survey about construction waste as well as recycled materials.
Within this context, there is no doubt that ECCE is prepared to promote the Civil Engineer of the next century. I am confident that the new elected president Antonio Adao da Fonseca will lead ECCE through the year 2000 without any "big bug". I wish him a successful presidency.
Best regards,
Gerard
As our illustration shows, Professor António Adão da Fonseca is a builder of bridges. His training as an engineer straddled two European countries and has taken him as far as Angola and Poland. Born in Portugal in 1947, he went on to study in Oporto in 1971, following this with a PhD in Structural Engineering at Imperial College, London in 1980.
Professor Adão da Fonseca combines academic activity as a full professor of bridges and special structures in the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Oporto with profession activity as a consulting engineer dealing in design of bridges and special structures.
At the last count he had 123 bridges to his credit and his design of a 20-cinema Multi-Cinema Complex perhaps points to an increasing interest in the role of information and communications technology in construction.
Within ECCE he has indicated his strong interest in ethics and guidelines for professional conduct within Europe as well as other educational and training matters.
1998 was the year in which ECCE went on line.
In order to increase our service to members, the decision was taken to make ECCE news and views available on a dedicated Internet site. Until now, information had been made available through the web-site of the U.K.-based Institution of Civil Engineers which provides the ECCE Secretariat.
As members have indicated an active interest in information and communications technology (ICT) it was decided to speed up our pan-European communications and consultations by presenting them in electronic format.
The ECCE web site makes our aims and objectives and membership available to the general public and reserves a private password-protected area for a discussion forum where members can read and comment on position papers which are being prepared for the European Commission or other institutions. National representatives of ECCE hold a password which they can share with selected experts who have been asked to provide input to the consultation document or position paper in progress. A small specialist firm,
Jackson & Bond Ltd were selected to tailor the site to member requirements and have made it possible for members to exchange news and views within their own forum in addition to responding to consultation requests.The site is now at the development stage and links are being created with member organisation sites and other useful web-sites in Europe.
Romanian representative to ECCE, Professor Iacinte Manoliu of the UAICR has kept members informed on a regular basis spoke of the EUCEET Network (European Civil Engineering Education and Training) and a project which, if successful, was due to commence in the academic year 1998/1999. We are pleased to advise members that the project has beat stiff competition and has been accepted for European Commission funding.
The project, which is being co-ordinated by the Paris-based Ecole National des Ponts et Chaussées, stems from a 1995 TEMPUS Project. 43 universities have joined the network.
The project network has members from all EU countries and in addition the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary. From EFTA both Norway and Liechtenstein are members.
The project aims to improve co-operation between universities, faculties and departments of civil engineering in Europe, with the involvement of academic and professional associations, in order to contribute to the development of civil engineering education and to increase its quality and effectiveness. Areas of mutual interest include core curricula in civil engineering education; post-graduate programmes and continuing professional development in civil engineering; quality assessment and mutual recognition in civil engineering education; innovation and learning in civil engineering education; synergy university-research-industry in the construction sector of Europe; demands of the economic and professional environments in Europe in respect to civil engineering education.
The 27th Meeting of ECCE was hosted in Romania by The Romanian Union of Engineering Associations (UAITR). It was a lively meeting which brought together Council representatives and expert advisers from many parts of Europe.
Expert presentations were given to members on the subjects of seismicity in Romania by Professor Sandu and on the situation within Romania’s construction sector since the revolution at the beginning of the decade, by Ion Stanescu, the Director General of the Ministry of Public Works and Territorial Planning of Romania.
ECCE members pictured together on the final day of the Bucharest meeting,
May 1998
The 28th Meeting of ECCE was held in Munich, Bavaria
The Bavarian capital, sometimes referred to as Germany’s ‘secret capital’ was the location for the autumn 1998 meeting of the European Council and its Task Forces. ECCE members were pleased to welcome Herr Alfred Sauter, the Bavarian Secretary of State who has responsibility for construction and civil-engineering and Karlheinz Zachmann who is a senior official in the European Commission with responsibility for construction matters.
Also present at the meeting were Professor José Medem, President of WFEO, the World Federation of Engineering Organisations and also a Past-President of ECCE and Graham Hornby the original Secretary General of ECCE. Both were pleased to see the growth in membership since ECCE’s inception in the 1980s
Prof. Jose Medem, Karlheinz Zachmann, António Adão da Fonseca and
Hermann Sturm outside the Deutsches Museum’s "Forum der Technik
ECCE is actively involved in European issues affecting the profession. By active participation in pan-industry groups members are kept informed and their views are put across to the European Institutions.
On 23rd March, 1998 ECCE President Gerard Baron, ECCE Secretary General John Whitwell and Deputy Secretary Diana Maxwell attended a meeting of the Crane Group at the European Parliament in Brussels. The Crane Group is an "inter-group" being very similar in aim to "all party" groups in the UK Parliament.
In his capacity as immediate Past-President Mr Baron attended the Crane Group again in early December accompanied by President António Adão da Fonseca and the ECCE secretariat. The subject under discussion was the Competitiveness of the Construction Industry, an issue in which ECCE has played an active role in providing support and advice to the European Commission.
The Crane Group looks at all issues relating to construction to enable members of the European Parliament to increase their awareness of technical issues which affect their decision making. ECCE acts to ensure that the views of professional civil engineers are made known to parliamentarians.
Gérard Baron (centre), ECCE President chats to Ulrich Pzetzold, Secretary of FIEC, the European Construction Industry Federation) and Juan-Antonio Campos, a senior Commission Official at the meeting.
The March 1998 meeting looked at the role of the construction sector within the European Community Fifth Framework programme for research and development. There were three main speakers: Matthias Ruete, deputy head of office to Research and Development Commissioner Madam Edith Cresson; Garcia Arroyo, Directeur of DGXII/C, EU Commission; and Scott Steedman, Directeur of ECCREDI. The ensuing discussions gave members of the respective European Federations the opportunity to express their particular concerns and to emphasise the need for construction to feature as a key element in research and development funding.
Chairman: Mr Vassilis Economopoulos of Greece.
In the absence of Mr Econompoulos at the May 1998 meeting of ECCE, the group formed an Ad Hoc Task Force on "The Civil Engineering Profession in Europe"
Task Force members exchanged views and discussed contributions to the ECCE publication in progress "The Civil Engineering Profession in Europe". The action contributed towards a shared understanding of the terminology - perceptions even of what a civil engineer is vary between European countries.
Professor Manoliu of Romania gave a presentation to Council members on the EUCEET proposal submitted to the European Commission which seeks to continue and enlarge the work of a pan-European network of institutions involved in civil engineering education.
A draft document was given to all members to review at the Prague meeting in October. It was clear that statistics provided would have to be reviewed and discussion focused on areas of the document where information would have to be augmented or set out in a more concise manner to present a more uniform picture of the scenario. for editing, proof-reading and publication prior to the publication of the document in 1998.
Chairmen in 1998 Mike Cottell of the UK and David Green of the UK.
Spring Meeting, Chairman Mike Cottell
The Task Force focused on one subject for the meeting of the Environment Task Force - Construction Waste. Presentations on the subject were given by Denmark, the U.K., France and Germany.
Mike Cottell, the Chairman of the Environment Task Force pointed out that the construction waste issue deals with both the environment and the profession. The Environment Task Force had a schedule of activities which covered transportation, trans European networks and the assessment of environmental impact. Regarding construction waste he was very grateful to three members, Denmark, France and Germany for the presentations they had prepared. The issues which were under discussion were: recycling; permits; raising the question on whether there should be a planning permission condition for reuse and the problem of bureaucracy which would delay demolition.
In the Task Force members had agreed there was a need for modern design to take account of the fact that the structure has a finite life. There is still a strong need for research and development.
Gérard Baron emphasised the need for all ECCE members to support ECCE’s contribution to the European Commission’s work on construction waste. He mentioned France’s plan to get rid of landfill by the year 2002 except for ultimate waste. This introduced the question of interpretation of ultimate waste and is one of the factors which must be raised in the ECCE response to the European Commission.
Autumn Meeting: Chairman David Green
The meeting considered the paper produced for the European Commission. It was agreed that further preparation could be carried out to supply the Commission services with further relevant detail.
Discussion then ensued on environmental impact assessment on which briefing material had been made available.
Chaired by Mr Yrjö Matikainen of Finland.
Once again the Fifth Framework Programme for Research and Development dominated discussions. Yrjö Matikainen introduced the work of the Research and Development Task Force in looking at the Fifth Framework Programme and the City of the Future. It was hoped that a final decision would be reached on the programme by the end of 1998. The budget from the Council of Ministers for the Fifth Framework Programme is ECU 14 million although the original proposal was for ECU 16.3 million. ECCE members can find up-to-date information available on the world wide web. The internet address is http://www.cordis.lu.
Following discussions it was agreed that the Research and Development Task Force has to have a network. Not every country has a research and development representative. ECCE would like to have names, e-mail and postal addresses in order to prepare positions more quickly and on a democratic basis. All members were asked to act upon this request.
There is interest within the Task Force in looking at Euro-codes and at building legislation in each country to see how it is working. The ECCE Task Force will continue to follow the Fifth Framework programme and seek to influence it. Task Force members felt that there is a need for the ECCE web-site to have links to national research and development sites. This would be part of a strategy to create a better network within ECCE to support the work of ECCREDI.
Some Fifth Framework Actions relating to the Civil Engineering/ Construction Sector:
Yrjö Matikainen, the Task Force Chairman, felt that action should be taken in 21 other key cases, not just in relation to "The City of Tomorrow".
ECCE is currently gathering together information on Ethics and Codes of Conduct from all Member Countries and aims to provide European guidelines for the professional conduct of the civil engineer. Members and observers were reminded of the need to contact Antonio Adao da Fonseca of the Ordem in Portugal with further information.
The next meeting of the European Council of Civil Engineers will be held in Dublin on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th May 1999 and will be hosted by the Institution of Engineers of Ireland.
Member organisations have already volunteered to host subsequent meetings. The Cyprus Council of Civil Engineers has proposed that they welcome ECCE members for a first visit to Cyprus in Autumn 1999 whilst the Consiglio Nazionale degli Ingegneri, Italy has offered to host the first ECCE meeting of the millennium in Spring 2000. Not to be outdone, the U.K.-based Institution of Civil Engineers hopes to offer members a chance to view Britain’s Millennium Dome when it hosts an ECCE meeting in November 2000. Portugal has also been thinking ahead and has offered to host a meeting in Spring 2001 when Porto will be ‘Cultural Capital of Europe’.
ECCE welcomes a guest speaker in Munich
L.to r. Antonio Adao da Fonseca, Alfred Sauter, Bavarian Secretary of State for Construction, Gerard Baron, Hermann Sturm, Theodorous Voudiklaris, John Whitwell
The new President of ECCE is António Adão da Fonseca, of the Ordem dos Engenheiros of Portugal.
The President of ECCE from 1996 to 1999 was Gérard Baron, an active member of the Anciens Élèves de l’École des Ponts et Chaussées in France. ECCE Vice-Presidents were Hermann Sturm of the Deutsche Sektion des ECCE and Theodore Voudiklaris of the Association of Civil Engineers of Greece.
The ECCE secretariat is provided by the Institution of Civil Engineers. John Whitwell, Deputy Secretary of Qualifications and External Affairs at ICE is ECCE Secretary General.
Initial enquiries about ECCE’s activities should be made to your representative organisation or to the Secretariat. National organisations wishing to enquire about membership of ECCE should contact the ECCE Secretariat for a full application pack.
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
A formal application has been submitted by Estonia. Representatives were not present when the Executive Committee reviewed the application at the Autumn meeting in Munich, but agreement was reached that they should be invited to become full members in 1999.
ECCE participates in the Crane Group, the European Parliament inter-group on the built environment. ECCE is also a member of ECCREDI, the European Council for Construction Research, Development and Innovation which is actively involved in the European Commission’s R & D programme and has a contract relating to targeted research actions. ECCE’s President and Secretariat also hold regular meetings with ECBP, the European Council of Building Professionals.
ECCE address details are provided on the contact page.
Return to the ECCE home page here.