2001 Annual Report of the Board to the General Assembly
During 2001 EurEta continued to develop as a pan-European virtual organisation and to strengthen its links with other relevant bodies throughout Europe and beyond. The role and priorities of the Association were reviewed and a number of key aims and objectives agreed upon. It was felt by the Board important both to increase the number of individual registrants and to raise the profile of EurEta as an influential organisation for higher engineering and technical professionals. The Association�s vision is to be an organisation facilitating learning, development, employment, representation, recognition and free movement in the engineering profession.
At the end of 2001 there were 1 356 EurEta registrants, an increase of 116 over the previous year. The numbers registered from each country and through the International Section, with the 2000 figures given in brackets, are as follows: Belgium 35 (28), Denmark 5 (10), Finland 148 (162), Hungary 15 (15), Italy 603 (533), Sweden 24 (22), Switzerland 512 (464), International 14 (6). The Board are conscious of the need to raise the profile of EurEta among individual engineers in order significantly to increase the number of registrants.
The Board were pleased to welcome to their February meeting Catherine Heldmaier of the European Commission�s Directorate General for the Internal Market. Ms Heldmaier gave a very interesting presentation on plans to develop a common platform for the regulated professions, including that of engineering. Contact continues to be maintained with the Directorate General for the Internal Market as well as with the Directorate General for Employment and Social Affairs and the Directorate General for Education and Culture. In addition Raffaele Gulizia, President of EurEta-Italia, has made important contacts within the European Parliament.
Such organisations include the European Federation of National Engineering Associations (FEANI), the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI), the World Federation of Technology Organizations (WFTO), and the International Association for Continuing Engineering Education (IACEE). In May Erkki Husu of Finland presented a paper at the World Conference on Continuing Engineering Education in Toronto, Canada entitled International Integration and Mutual Recognition of Engineers: The Situation of the EurEta Register 2001
Martin Eppler of Switzerland, who had done much over the years to put EurEta on a firm footing, decided to resign as President of the Association from the end of June. The General Assembly expressed their grateful thanks to Martin for all his work, saying that it was in large part due to his dedication that EurEta had developed into a strong and influential pan-European body. They were pleased to confer upon him Honorary Membership of EurEta. Urs Keller, also of Switzerland, took over as President from the beginning of July.
Much of the administration of the Association had been carried out at Martin Eppler�s school by Martin himself with help from members of his staff. Since July however this work has been taken on by others throughout the Association. Responsibility for the production and issuing of registration cards and certificates is now in the hands of Lennart Alfredsson of Sweden, Chairman of the Registration Committee, and the bookkeeping has been taken over by EurEta�s Treasurer, G�ran Orup, also of Sweden. Graham Guest of the United Kingdom, EurEta�s Secretary-General, co-ordinates the running of the Association from London, working closely with the President and other members of the Board.
During the year there were elections to the Board and the new members took office from January 2002. Timo Nieminen of Finland and Harald Schulte of Germany were elected as Board members and Raffaele Gulizia of Italy was elected as the new Vice-President of EurEta. The term of office of Erkki Husu of Finland came to an end, as did that of Brian Mott of the United Kingdom, but Brian, whose experience with EurEta goes back to its inception, was co-opted to serve for a further year. The General Assembly paid tribute to Brian Mott for his commitment to the Association both as a Board member and as Vice-President.
Although elections to the Registration Committee were not due to take place until 2002, it was agreed to elect an additional member. Christian Sieber of Switzerland was voted on to the Committee, thereby providing a link with the International Section of EurEta, which operates under the aegis of the Swiss National Committee. The International Section deals with applications for registration from countries where there is no National Member or where the National Member, for whatever reason, chooses not to register individuals.
As well as adjudicating on applications for registration the Registration Committee are working on updating the Registration Regulations and an ad hoc Working Group are continuing to investigate the feasibility of defining the requirements for EurEta registration in terms of competence and outcomes. At their meeting in November the Board began to investigate the feasibility of introducing a second tier of registration and asked the Working Group to look at how this might be done. A report on progress will be made to the General Assembly at their 2002 meeting.
The status of certain countries within EurEta changed during the year and the current membership situation is as follows. There are National Members in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, and National Members in Development in Belgium, Cyprus and Hungary. There are four Supporting Members, one of which is from Austria: Technologenverband Wien, and three of which are from the United Kingdom: EMTA - the National Training Organisation for Engineering Manufacture, Prospect (formerly the Engineers� & Managers� Association), and the Engineering Council.
The Board were sorry that the Engineering Council - a founder member of EurEta and a strong supporter of its aims - decided to terminate its National Membership at the end of 2001. When EurEta was formed in 1993 registration was seen as being appropriate for UK Incorporated Engineers. In recent years however the exemplifying academic qualification for Incorporated Engineer registration has been enhanced and the Engineering Council no longer feels EurEta registration to be appropriate. Ways of addressing the Engineering Council�s concerns are being investigated by the Board, who hope to see the Council becoming the UK National Member again in the near future. Meanwhile the Council�s decision to remain in close contact with EurEta as a Supporting Member is most welcome. Malta is also no longer represented in EurEta. The Association will be working throughout 2002 and beyond to recruit new National Members, National Members in Development and Supporting Members.
During 2001 the Board met in February in Brussels and in November in London, where they were kindly hosted by both the Engineering Council and EMTA. Meetings of the Board, the Registration Committee and the General Assembly took place in June in the Euro-Region of Basel, partly in the Swiss city of Basel itself and partly in the German town of L�rrach. Those attending the meetings were made very welcome by the Swiss National Committee of EurEta and had the opportunity of attending a symposium, entitled it works, organised by Swiss Technologists TS/ET/ST as part of their 20th anniversary celebrations. At the symposium, the theme of which was Die Techniker bewegen die Welt�wie machen sie das? (Technicians move the world�how do they do that?), EurEta�s Secretary-General, Graham Guest, made a presentation entitled Europe - Workplace for competent professionals with CPD (Europa - Arbeitsplatz kompetenter Fachleute mit permanenter Weiterbildung).
EurEta stresses the importance to registrants of continuing professional development (CPD) and links are maintained with the CPD Committee of FEANI. The Association has issued a booklet entitled Continuing Professional Development to complement the booklets entitled About EurEta: General Information and Supporting EurEta. The EurEta website at www.eureta.org is a valuable source of publicity and information, and the Board agreed that it should be revised and updated in 2002. Articles about the Association continue to appear from time to time in various publications and on other organisations� websites.
In recent years changes have taken place to the engineering formation systems of many European countries and it is important that the requirements for registration with EurEta reflect these changes. In many ways the distinction between the more theoretically-oriented and the more practically-oriented engineer is becoming greater, and EurEta must therefore be certain of positioning itself as the professional body for practically-oriented higher engineers in Europe. The new President, Urs Keller, has emphasised this aspect of the Association�s vision and the importance of achieving it within the next three years. He is keen to see the beginning of a new era for EurEta as an organisation with a strong focus on all its �customers�.
If EurEta is to remain a viable organisation it will need to enhance the services, including recognition, facilitation of free movement, and support for continuing professional development, that it provides to registrants.0 The Board are sensitive to the different needs of engineers in the different countries of Europe and they look forward to continuing to play their part in responding to these needs in collaboration with the Association�s key stakeholders: National Members, National Members in Development, and Supporting Members.