ECCE’s Links with other organisations:

ECCREDI:  ECCE is a subscribing member of the European Council for Construction Research, Development and Innovation. 

SEFI: ECCE is also a subscribing member of SEFI, a European association for engineering education.  www.sefi.org

ECF: The European Construction Forum groups pan-European bodies in the built environment sector and meets in Brussels a number of times each year. www.ecf.be

ASCE:  ECCE exchanges information/publications on a regular basis with the U.S. organisation ASCE www.asce.org

JSCE:  The Japan Society of Civil Engineers and ECCE exchange information and publications.  www.jsce.org

WFEO: ECCE is regularly informed about World Federation of Engineering Organisations activities through former ECCE President Jose Medem.

ECCE and the European institutions

A visit to the European Commission

In October, Yrjö Matikainen and Diana Maxwell visited D.G. Internal Market to seek clarification on the draft Directive on Professional Mobility, in particular the issue of ‘platforms’.  The general guidance was that there will be no further compensatory measures in relation to qualifications and the relevance of national requirements. Professional associations may define added value in terms of migrant.  Some years ago a proposal by some ECCE member organisations, named the Paris Accord, was rejected as being inappropriate by the Commission.  It appears the reason for this was that the Accord defined a higher qualification but did not give added value.  It was therefore dropped.

There is a need for facilitation in terms.  With regard to decision-making on platforms the Commission proposes to Member States – 2/3 of all Member States must agree, since it is Member States who are responsible for regulating the profession (requiring special qualification for access to the profession or to use a title).  It is conceivable that Member States which have higher requirements than platform would have a problem (e.g. Greece/Spain).  From the level of study of three years and above, one must be able to look at bridging possibilities.   If the host Member States requires more than four years’ level of education it is impossible to recognise, they will not accept three years.  You can ask applicants to make up the difference e.g. with 3 years’ supervised practice.  The Directive does not say anything to the employer about Protection of Title.  The ‘Platform’ must compensate in advance.  In a situation where two qualifications did not equate, one could argue it is not the same profession.

A further visit was paid to the Construction Unit of D.G. Enterprise.  Yrjö Matikainen and Diana Maxwell made the acquaintance of Antonio Paparello who has taken responsibility for competitiveness activities which were previously carried out by Juan-Antonio Campos, a graduate of civil engineering from Spain.  Mr Campos retired at the end of 2003 and some months elapsed before a replacement was found.

Who sits on our Executive Committee?

The present Executive Committee of the European Council of Civil Engineers was appointed in autumn 2002 and will serve until autumn 2005.

ECCE President is Yrjoe Matikainen of Finland.   He graduated MSc in civil engineering in 1966, and commenced his career as a railways engineer, spending 14 years designing and building bridges and structures.   From 1980 -2000 he was Managing Director of the Association of Finnish Civil Engineers “RIL”.   He is now a Director of his own company and his activities include involvement in the assessment of European Commission projects in the ICT field.

Professor Carsten Ahrens of Germany is ECCE Senior Vice-President who teaches geo-technics to civil engineers at the Fachhochschule at Oldenburg.   He is actively involved in international relations and in promotion of Professional Recognition.

Vasillis Economopoulos of Greece is the Honorary Treasurer.  He is Managing Director of the Athens Metro.  Prior to that he held a number of senior positions in the Greek administration.   

Immediate Past-President Professor Antonio Adao da Fonseca of Portugal teaches civil engineering at Oporto whilst also being an active consulting engineer whose most recent projects have included major bridges in Portugal and internationally.

Professor Iacint Manoliu of Romania is Vice-Rector of the Technical University of Bucharest.  He is a specialist in geo-technical engineering but is also actively involved in international projects such as EUCEET.   He is a Committee member of SEFI.

Georges Pilot of France graduated from the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees.  He recently retired from a senior position in France’s Laboratoire des Ponts et Chaussees.   

Diana Maxwell is Secretary General of ECCE.  She is a languages graduate of the University of Edinburgh.  Her experience includes a number of years at a French merchant bank in the City of London, three years at the European Commission and over 7 years at the Institution of Civil Engineers in the U.K.  where she was European Affairs Manager.  She has worked for ECCE for over 10 years.

Membership of ECCE

ECCE comprises national organisations which represent the interests of professional civil engineers.  Only one organisation may represent each country which is a member of ECCE.  At present our membership comprises:

Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic,  Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary,  Ireland, Italy, Lithuania,  Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia,  Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

To find out more: Initial enquiries about ECCE’s activities should be made to your representative organisation or to the Secretariat. 

To become a member:  ECCE represents national organisations.  National organisations in EU/EFTA countries wishing to enquire about membership of ECCE should contact the ECCE Secretariat for a full application pack.  We regret we can not accept individual members. 

 The European Council of Civil Engineers

 http://www.eccenet.org e-mail: eccesecretariat@hotmail.com

Registered Office : c/o ICE, One Great George Street, London SW1P 3AA

Correspondence addressed to the Secretary General should be sent to:

Diana Maxwell, ECCE Secretariat, 3 Springfields, Amersham, Bucks HP6 5JU