 At the invitation of
Belgium and Luxembourg trackworks contractors associations, the EFRTC hold its
autumn General meeting in Brussels on 28th November 2008.
The meeting agenda dealt with statutory issues and reports from the EFRTC
Committees Chairmen in the first part but it has also included the presentations
of the invited guests.
The participants were welcomed by Freddy ESCHLER from Taveirne Algemene
Onderneming NV Belgium on behalf of the Benelux contractors. Taveirne Algemene
Onderneming together with Union des Enterprises de Travaux Ferroviaires –
FEGC-FABA have provided an excellent support for the preparation and
organisation of the meeting and all accompanying events.
EFRTC President welcomed the participants, introduced the speakers and outlined
the agenda of the meeting. He further in his opening address briefly recalled
recent developments of the EFRTC (available at EFRTC Member area website
folder).
Secretary General in his report summarized the EFRTC activities since last
meeting focused on the following main issues:
- Joint infrastructure managers /EFRTC contractors workshop in the frame of
INNOTRACK project hold in Paris on 18.06.08
- Follow up of the outcome of workshop jointly with EIM and CER
- 1st Technical and Logistics Committee meeting hold in Paris on 08.10.08
- 2nd Safety and Security Committee meeting hold in Paris on 15.10.08
- EFRTC participation at UNIFE UNIRAILINFRA Committee meeting, Brussels,
04.09.08 and CEN TC 256/SC 1 Plenary session, Delft, 09.10.08
- And other activities as e.g. acquisition, EFRTC presentations and
participation at other events.
In the statutory part of the meeting the budget 2009 and subscription fees for
2009 were approved. Further the GM took the note on the changes in the
representation of German contractors and the membership of Bulgarian
association.
The Chairmen of the new three EFRTC professional Committees delivered their
first reports/presentations to General meeting.
Jeremy Candfield, Chairman of the EFRTC Policy and Research Committee presented
the tasks and way forward in follow up key findings from INNOTRACK project.
After two meetings with EIM and CER it was proposed to set up three joint
EIM/CER/EFRTC Working group namely for the following Work-streams:
A – Market Strategy
B – Long term Funding and planning
E – Contracting Strategies
The Work-streams A and B will be chaired by EIM/CER representatives, work stream
E by EFRTC. GM agreed with proposal to appoint Prof Lothar Fendrich as EFRTC
Chairman for Work-stream E. The participants were invited to appoint the company
representatives willing to participate in the above Working groups.
Jo Urlings, Chairman of the ERFRTC Safety and Security meeting reported on the
outcome of the 2nd meeting held in Paris on 15th October 2008 and plans for the
future. There will be no joint EIM/EFRTC working group as most of the work is
carried out within ERA and CEN but EFRTC and EIM agreed on reciprocal
participation at their meetings dealing with safety issues to assure the
coordination and mutual information.
Fernando Silva Santos, Chairman of the EFRTC Technical and Logistics reported on
the outcome Committee held in Paris on 8th October 2008. Besides a good
attendance of EFRTC members, the participation of observers from EIM, CER, UNIFE
and manufacturing industry has also contributed to success of the meeting. Among
the numerous items discussed, the Committee agreed to re-initiate the work of
the joint EIM/EFRTC Working Group on Harmonization of Procurement with enhanced
participation of CER IMs. Mr Nick van den Hurk was appointed to act as EFRTC
Co-Chairman for the Group together with EIM appointed Co-Chairman Eric Maatjes.
The presentations and reports from the Committees are available at EFRTC website
in member area folders.
As usual, IM representative from host country and IM from new Member state -
Czech Republic were invited to deliver the presentations on their recent
developments.
Presentations of Mr Luc Vansteenkiste General Director of INFRABEL and Anna
Kodysova, Director of CEO Secretariat of SZDC (Czech Infrastructure Manager) are
available at public part of the EFRTC website:  download the presentation
INFRABEL - download the presentation SZDC
At the EFRTC request Mr Michael Clausecker presented the results of the study
carried out by consultant Rolland Berger & partners on future world-wide market
for railway infrastructure. download the presentation.
The morning session was concluded by the presentation of Czech Technology
Platform which is a legal body to be potential member of EFRTC. It consists of
the industry (suppliers and contractors), institutions, research and academia.
From six major contractors on Czech market four are members of the platform. download the presentation.
Taking opportunity that the General meeting was held in Brussels a special EC
afternoon session was organized with presentation of the following speakers
- Mr. Ioannis GIOGKARAKIS on behalf of Mr. Dirk Beckers, Executive Director of
TEN-T Executive Agency –
download the presentation.
- Mme. Gudrun SCHULZE on behalf of Mr. Jean-Eric Paquet, 'avant-première' of the
green book that the European Commission prepares for December '08
- Mr Maurizio MAGGIORE, DG Research – unit H2 – Surface Transport – download the presentation.
The EFRTC Chairman thanked to all speakers for their effort and expressed its
particularly high gratitude for an excellent organisation of the meeting by host
associations – Belgium and Luxembourg.
At the end of the meeting Mr Fernando Silva SANTOS invited EFRTC GM to Portugal.
The next EFRTC General meeting will be held in Porto on 5th June 2009. For more information please contact Imrich Korpanec - SG-EFRTC@fntp.fr
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