55th General Meeting of the European Council of Civil Engineering (ECCE)
The 55th ECCE General Meeting was held in Vilnius, Lithuania on 25th- 26th May. The event was attended by Hayley Coleman (Area Manager Europe) and David Lloyd-Roach (Director of Membership). ICE represents the UK as ECCE’s UK delegation, and joins the over 20 countries that are members of the Council.
The meeting was hosted by the Lithuanian Association of Civil Engineers (LSIS) and featured a welcome speech by the Minister of Lithuanian Ministry of Environment G. Kazlauskas as well as President of the Lithuanian Association of Civil Engineers A. Vapsys. The theme of the conference was transport infrastructure development in Lithuania and neighbouring countries, and featured a keynote presentation by Dr. A. Sakalys as well as a presentation on the Klaipeda port development.
ECCE currently has five Standing Committees and one Task Force, which all met on Friday 25th May. The five Standing Committees are: Education & Training; Knowledge & Technology; Professional Recognition & Mobility; and, Development & Business Environment. As such, the Standing Committees looked into improving professional recognition across Europe as well as how to current technological innovations contribute to the civil engineering profession. ECCE is also looking into ways to increase its knowledge base and network, and how ECCE can progress and develop given recent and upcoming EU legislation. The current Task Force relates to Public Relations & Civil Engineering Heritage, and ECCE is currently putting together a publication on footbridges for this Task Force.
On Friday evening, the group visited the beautiful town of Trakai (approximately 30km from Vilnius), touring a castle alongside a picturesque lake. ECCE delegates then enjoyed a dinner nearby, which featured traditional Lithuanian music and dancing by a group from the local engineering university. LSIS also graciously arranged for a cultural and technical visit of the old city as well as a day trip which gave attendees the opportunity to see the areas surrounding the city, including the geographical centre of Europe.
The next meeting will be in Dubrovnik, Croatia from 25th - 28th October 2012, and will be hosted by the Croatian Chamber of Civil Engineers. For more information about ECCE and about ECCE General Meetings, please visit the ECCE website at http://www.ecceengineers.eu.