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Further growth of the EAE and the focus of main topics for the future

Quality, system approach and environmental protection have been the major topics of the Members‘ Meeting in Paris

The European Association for ETICS (EAE) invited all member associations to its recent meeting in Paris. President Lothar Bombös opened the conference with the good news that the EAE welcomes two new important representatives of the insulation materials industry at the beginning of 2012: EUMEPS, the European association of EPS manufacturers and EPFA, the European association of phenolic foam manufacturers.

„With these two new members, we will strengthen our position as the leading association for External Thermal Insulation Composite Systems (ETICS) in Europe“, Lothar Bombös explained in his welcome speech. ”The EAE already represents about an 85% share of the European turnover with ETICS and is recognized in Brussels as the umbrella organization of important national ETICS associations.” This could easily be approved by the list of participants, coming from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and leading European associations of the insulation materials industry.

The Members‘ Meeting unanimously elected Dominique Delassus to the board. He is President of the host French association G2M, and will be responsible for financial issues. The election was necessary as his predecessor, Jacek Kulig from the Polish association SSO, has left the ETICS industry. 

„ETICS are amazing!“ is the title of EAE’s new image brochure, presented by Vice President Clemens von Trott. The forward is written by EU Commissioner for Energy, Günther Oettinger and the brochure was published very shortly after the founding of the Marketing Committee. Chairman Gino Gailliart, Chairman of the working group ETICS within the Belgian association IVP, and his team not only show the various possibilities for designing facades with ETICS in the brochure but also the huge opportunities for saving heating energy and CO2 emissions; they also illustrate the positive effects on the European labour market by using ETICS for thermal renovation

In further addresses and discussions EAE’s Members’ Meeting emphasized the central objectives of the Association’s strategy: quality, system approach and environmental protection.

On behalf of the Technical Committee Chairman Federico Tedeschi from the Italian association Cortexa outlined the importance of the system approach to ensure safety and quality of insulated facades. The member associations fully agreed to this quality objective. In his guest presentation Alain Maugard, President of the French quality control organization QUALIBAT, highlighted: “Both consumers and investors must be able to rely on the good quality of ETICS facades.” On the one hand, quality is created by systems, he explained therefore system holders must ensure that all composite components perform together perfectly. On the other, maintaining quality also requires careful installation by qualified applicators. Currently all French installers are trained and certified nationwide to ensure they have the necessary knowledge to competently install ETICS high performance systems.

Philippe Pelletier, Director of the French Ministry for Environment, Sustainable Growth, Traffic and Construction, informed the meeting about the extraordinary role of ETICS within the new environmental politics „Grenelle de l’environnement“. As times of cheap energy have definitely ended, French people are going to alter their thinking. In the long-term a majority of the French population with only small incomes will be threatened by expensive energy. Pelletier talked about “energy poverty”. Thus, saving energy for heating is not only a contribution to environment and climate protection, but also necessary to preserve prosperity. France has learned this lesson and will catch up with other EU countries rather quickly, he promised.

Günter Nosbüsch reported about the foundation of the Swiss association for ETICS. In addition, he gave some information about the market situation.

Ralf Pasker presented an overview of the current status of the European harmonization process for ETICS. This process will be supported by the member associations of the EAE. He also provided information about EAE’s membership in the CEPMC, the European umbrella organization of construction products manufacturers.

The results of the networking workshop were presented by David Harrison of the UK association INCA. Goals are the quick exchange of information and experiences between EAE member associations as well as with stakeholders like designers, architects, investors or developers.

Finally, EAE’s President Lothar Bombös expressed his thanks to all participants for valuable discussions. Special thanks went to the French association for organizing and hosting the meeting. EAE’s next General Assembly will be in Italy in April 2012.