Page 12 - Annual Report 2014-2015

STATEMENT BY
THE SECRETARY GENERAL
Mr. Dirk BOCHAR/ Secretary General of FEANI
In this Annual Report we provide for a decentralised and national overview of the activities of our 35 FEANI National Members and also focus on a number of topics which should merit our attention as they increasingly in uence the way in which we work. Those topics relate to globalisation, the European Union and their impact on our profession.
As in any other supra-national Organization, nding consensus on key policies with 35 member nations remains an ongoing challenge, but much has been accomplished over the last ve years in increasing our visibility and ensuring a higher participation and engagement of our National Members. We have developed a wider range of activities, products and events with the setting up of the National Members Forum and various working groups on different themes, such as on Common Training Principles for Engineers, Business Development, IT and Finance. In the light thereof we organized a successful FEANI congress in October 2015 on “The Lisbon Strategy”. We play a key-role in
the organization of the European Engineers Day of which the next event is scheduled for September 2017. We take pride in the fact that our relationships – within our network and with partners around the world, such as the WFEO, the EU, etc. – prosper through trust, transparency, fairness and mutual respect. Through these processes our representatives are encouraged to use their knowledge and skills to the full. Our Central Secretariat in Brussels continues to support national members across Europe through the delivery and dissemi- nation of high-quality information and ef cient services on European affairs. In return, the National Members - where well-supported staff is available - continue to contribute with expert advice in our various bodies.
In October 2015, the FEANI General Assembly decided that the boundaries of our European network should coincide with those of the signatories to the European Higher Education Area (Bologna Process). This decision has provided for clarity as to which countries can still be attracted in widening our network. We are pleased that with Ukraine in 2016 and possibly also Turkey as from 2017 onwards, our network will cover an ever larger market. Working together within the Bologna area, makes our meetings easier in terms of membership and participation, notwithstanding the fact that education remains a national responsibility, implying complexities in comparing levels of acquired education. For that reason, more synergies with ENAEE (see later in this brochure) are being sought: the development of one European database for the education of the engineering profession will be established in combining the FEANI INDEX and the EUR-ACE database in the near future. This is required for a more complete and more user-friendly application for future engineering students, academics and industry. In this way, and through more intensi ed cooperation between FEANI - as the leading European Professional Engineering Body – and ENAEE – as the European Network of Accreditation Agencies for Engineering Education – we will be able to present ourselves as the “European Engineers”, a concept which both our Organizations are committed to accomplish and implement in the following years. Our management must