Seminar “Implementing of Eurocodes in Europe”

Seminar “Implementing of Eurocodes in Europe” organised within implementation of IPA 2010 project “Achieving the highest safety and technical quality of construction” was organized today at the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism. The aim was to present experience from European countries, as well as with the planned Project activities to project beneficiaries and professional interested public with.

The seminar was opened by BC and the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism representative, Ms Tatjana Vujošević – coordinator for monitoring and development, who pointed that that seminar is important for sharing extensive experience from EU countries in Eurocodes implementation in area of construction, which would be very useful to Montenegro during harmonization of standards in this area.

Mr Tariq Nawaz, RTA, presented the Project and practice in Eurocodes implementation in Great Britain. The presentation listed the problems, as well as challenges that GB encountered in 2003 during Eurocodes implementation, especially due to need for significant investment from both industry and government. Interested parties that were involved in the process were the National Standardization Body, engineers and designers, academic community, non-technical users (clients and insurance sector), regulators (central and local government), softer homes, etc. Presentation was given on activities and roles of other actors in Eurocodes implementation process, and importance of establishing of Steering Committee with a role to oversee the process, flag up the areas of concern, and insure that deadlines are met.

Mr Jean-Armand Calgaro, Chairperson of TC 250 dealing with standardization of Eurocodes in Europe, gave an overall review on Eurocodes and development of current generation of Eurocodes, as well as experience from France.

Mr Jochen Fornather, head of Committee at the Austrian Standards Institute, presented what National standards for Eurocode implementations should contain, as well as Austrian experience in implementation of Eurocodes. .

Mr Jean-Michel Remy, from AFNOR shared experience from France in Eurocodes implementation. Presentation was given on challenges, aspects of standardization and rules, as well as key issues for its implementation (regulation aspects, standards, rules and national practice), while Mr Wolfgang Lentsch, legal expert, gave an overview of public procurement system.

Presentations were followed by Q&A session.

The seminar was attended by DEU representative, project beneficiaries, i.e. representatives from ISME, Ministry of Interior – Sector for Emergency management, Seismological Observatory, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Republic fund for geological research and representatives from GeoProject Ltd.

Overall Eurocodes aims are defined with striving to set up a uniform basis for technical documentation in order to specify building contracts. Eurocodes are designed as a tool to remove barriers stemming from existence of different national regulations, thereby contributing to EU policy with regard to the free trade of goods and service in the field of construction.

Staring of Montenegrin negotiations to join EU requires harmonization with EU regulations in all areas, including construction. Thus, in framework of IPA 2010, project “Achieving the highest safety and technical quality of construction” was nominated, whose implementation officially started by signing the Twinning contract in April 2012, and today’s seminar was organized within this project.