CETOP General Assembly a Great Success
19 Jun 2019
BFPA CEO Chris Buxton reports on the 2019 CETOP General Assembly which this year, was held in the Czech Republic.
BFPA members will be aware that with the impending UK departure from the EU, the need to remain in close contact with our European cousins across the Fluid Power sector is paramount. To this extent, BFPA is a very active member and participant in CETOP – the European grouping of trade associations in the fluid power industry.
This year’s CETOP General Assembly was held in Cesky Krumlov, a beautiful medieval town about 200 kms south of Prague in the Czech Republic. Taking place between the 11th and 13th of June, the location was chosen on the basis that the Czech Fluid Power Association are recent members of the grouping and were keen to host this important annual event.
The busy three-day schedule began with a traditional welcome reception with speeches from the current Czech TA President Bohdan Gajdusek and in the absence of the current CETOP President until the following day, VP of Marketing, Arjan Coppens.
The agenda for the following three days included a variety of different working committees including Technical, Marketing and communications, Education & Training, Strategy and Economics. The BFPA CEO has been leading on a two-year strategy exercise and delivered a comprehensive report on what was essentially a completion of the exercise. Other significant agenda items included the consolidated position on developing a CETOP set of Educational Recommendations relating to the use of Electronics in Fluid Power – what is to become known as Fluid Power Electronics One or FPE1. This latest document will complement the existing H1 and P1 recommendations for Hydraulics and Pneumatics respectively. The UK has been especially active in establishing this document.
General Economic Country reports were made by all participants with the general trend being characterised by a slight muting of business over Q2 of 2019. Full country reports will shortly be made available to members on the BFPA website. Interestingly, the BFPA members report was amongst the most optimistic of the data sets presented.
The Assembly also hosts the annual election of CETOP Officers. Outgoing officers are presented with a modest glass award to thank them for their contribution over what is usually a two year period of office.
BFPA Members are encouraged to visit the CETOP website which can be found at www.cetop.org