Dear EFEE members, the president’s voice
Somehow we have arrived at the last month of this year as well as at the last issue of our EFEE Newsletter to you for this year. Time is running very quickly and let’s stop it for a while and briefly summarize the most important events in our federation during the year of 2016.
This year 2016 we started with an EFEE Board meeting on the 9th of January 2016 in Stockholm. The Board meeting in Stockholm was mainly focused on the organization of our next 9th EFEE World Conference which will take place in the capital of Sweden from 10th to 12th September 2017.
In April from 11th to 12th 2016 EFEE Council meeting and Annual General Meeting took place in Telford, UK where also a new EFEE Board was elected. The newly elected EFEE Board brought the new faces inside. The first one was Mrs. Viive Tuuna representing Estonian Association of Mining Enterprises (EMTEL) and the second one was Mr. Doru Anghelache from Romania representing EFEE Corporate members as well as Romanian Association of Explosives and Blasting Engineers (ARDE).
Unfortunately on the other hand Mr. Ricardo Chavez the representative of French Group of Explosives Engineers (GFEE) left EFEE Board. We were deeply grieved and shattered to hear of information that Alexander Efremovtsev, representative of Russian National Assotiaton NOEE suddenly and
tragically passed away on the 18th of June 2016. We have sent out the Condolence letter addressed to Russian National Association NOEE as well as to the family of Alexander Efremovtsev in which we have expressed sincere and deep condolence. On the 2nd of July 2016 we started our EFEE Board meeting in Bucharest with one minute of silence dedicated to the memory of Alexander. We will miss Alexander very much in our federation. I ́m immensely proud and happy that in the beginning of August 2016 we have noted very good news from Sweden. Our application for PECCS project (Pan-European Competency Certificate for Shotfirers / Blast designers by European Federation of Explosives Engineers) was approved for funding from Swedish Erasmus plus programme. The BEF in Sweden, represented by Jan Johansson, Anette Broman and Viive Tuuna, as the PECCS manager have done a great work which was positively rewarded.
The next EFEE Board and Council meeting took place in Stockholm, Sweden on the 16th and 17th of September in the same place where the 9th EFEE World Conference on Explosives and Blasting will be held 10th to 12th of September 2017.
The last Board meeting in 2016 took place in Helsinki from 8th to 9th of December 2016 with main focus on the organization of 10th EFEE World Conference in Helsinki 2019. This Board meeting took 2 days as the first day was dedicated to visit the venues where the conference will be organized and the second day was scheduled for the Board meeting. Except the regular EFEE Board meetings, Council meetings and Annual General Meeting our federation participates also in meetings of Notified Bodies for Explosives as well as on meetings of Explosives Working Group. EFEE is regularly represented on both types of meetings by Jörg Rennert who has done a great work for our federation in this area. Meeting of Notified Bodies for Explosives took place from 9th to 10th of May 2016 in Sibiu, Romania and was hosted by INCD INSEMEX, Petrosani. Meeting of Explosives Working Group took place on 17th of October 2016 in Brussels and a separate article from Jörg Rennert in this Newsletter edition is dedicated to this meeting. During the year of 2016 our federation was continuously growing and increasing the number of its members. I have to thank all EFEE partners, members and simply all who contributed to our mutual productive work which resulted in fact to a very positive year. Particularly I have to thank very much for excellent work to our Secretary General Roger Holmberg. Thank you very much Roger.
Now when we are approaching the end of 2016 I would like to take this opportunity to extend my best wishes to all of you. May all who celebrate Christmas enjoy the festive season and to all who are able to take a break at the end of the year, enjoy every moment.
Finally please do not finish reading our Newsletter with my foreword but kindly continue to read all the interesting articles prepared especially for you in this newsletter.
Igor Kopal, President of EFEE