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UEAtc have a new President.

UEAtc elected its new President in October 2015. Mr. Benny De Blaere, director of the BCCA (the Belgian Construction Certification Association), was unanimously elected.

Mr. De Blaere started his professional career at university, where he was active in the sector of concrete design technology and repair. That work brought him in contact with approval work and it became one of the most important parts of his work when he became director and later director general of the BCCA and, more recently, one of the 2 directors of UBAtc, the Belgian approval body.

Having been elected, Mr. De Blaere emphasized that the CPR is a useful tool for manufacturers and authorities, but insufficient to fulfill all the needs of the construction sector, because it does not take into account users’ needs and the risk assessment for particular construction sites. It is clear that the European Union embraces the free market and that this is an important principle for important actors in the economy, but it is not a solution for all the challenges that society encounters.

According to Mr. De Blaere, UEAtc needs to continue its work aiming at supporting UEAtc members to respond to the needs of the construction sector actors, in a new context. Approval bodies may need to adapt their systems, but given that the construction sector stakeholders are faced with different challenges in each country, their activities will continue to focus on providing added value through additional technical information and increased credibility of that information at that level. As far as possible, duplication of technical work amongst UEAtc members needs to be prevented through exchanging supporting technical information.

The UEAtc secretariat wishes Mr. De Blaere a prosperous and fruitful mandate.