CETOP General Assembly 2020 – Commission updates
24 Jun 2020
For the first time ever, the 2020 CETOP General Assembly was held remotely on 24 June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions. Twelve national trade associations took part, with the BFPA represented this year by Chris Buxton, Sarah Gardner and Yvonne Pearman.
The dual purpose of the CETOP General Assembly each year is for each of the various “Commissions” (working groups) to report back to the whole of CETOP on progress made in the year, and for each country to share economic information on fluid power in their own countries – this year it was evident that all 12 countries had been severely affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic. This is a round-up of the work being done by the various Commission (see separate newsletter article on various country economic outlooks).
Economic and Marketing Communication Commissions
The CETOP Economic Commission covers statistical exchanges, while the Marketing and Communication Commission is responsible for the CETOP website (aimed at end users of fluid power equipment), CETOP Directory (which has now gone digital) and exhibitions (all cancelled for 2020 or have gone virtual).
Technical Commission
This commission is led by France (ARTEMA) with its focus on keeping a watching brief on European regulations and their possible impacts on the fluid power industry, and intervene if necessary. Current projects being monitored include:
REACH
- Candidate List of Substances of Very High Concern (SVHC)
- Future SCIP database on substances of very high concern in articles
ECODESIGN Directive
- ERP study for lifts
MACHINERY DIRECTIVE
- Revision, standardisation…
ROHS
- new scope, new substances…
PRESSURE DIRECTIVE
- guidelines…
In the next few months, the Technical Commission plan to survey the European Green Deal and develop or revise the following CETOP position papers:
PP01 – Directive “Safety of Machinery” (98/37/EC)
PP04 – Pressure Equipment Directive – PED – 2014/68/EU
PP07 – Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC)
A new initiative from the Technical Commission is to link up with an end user sector to discuss upcoming regulations in that end user sector which might impact fluid power. The construction Equipment industry has agreed to present at the 2021 General Assembly.
Education Commission
BFPA holds the Secretariat for this Commission, although Sweden holds the “Vice Presidency” for this area of work. Current projects include the expansion of CETOP qualifications to include electronic control of fluid power equipment and a review of CETOP education centres and guidelines for approval.
