2010 TBE Annual General Assembly – Europe‘s brick and tile makers meet in Vienna

»1 A walk around town, mainly along Vienna‘s Ringstrasse, yielded lots of new impressions, even for those who come to Vienna frequently

»2 Many of the buildings are richly adorned with terracotta elements

»3 Franz Olbrich, President of Austria’s brick and tile producers‘ association “Verband Österreichischer Ziegelwerke“, welcomed the delegates to dinner

»4 Dr. Paul Rübig (second from left), an Austrian Member of the European Parliament, called upon Europe‘s brick and tile producers to be more active in Brussels

»5 The General Assembly was attended by delegates from Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, France, Greece, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Cyprus

Some 110 representatives of the European brick and tile industry convened in Vienna on October 21 and 22 for their annual general assembly. On Thursday, following the product groups’ deliberations and the meeting of the executive committee, the delegates were able to wind down with a guided tour of the inner city, including lots of information about clay brick architecture along the Ringstrasse. Then, on Friday, the general assembly dealt with such matters as a need for the branch to engage in more intensive publication relations work.

1 Product-group proceedings and executive committee meeting

On Thursday morning, the members of both product groups – roof and masonry – convened for their respective deliberations.

The roof group‘s agenda included a survey of European projects, technical reports (e.g., on product and test standards and about EN 539-2, which deals with the freeze/thaw cycling method) and standardization projects (e.g., options for standardizing thermal-solar and photovoltaic systems). The masonry group, for their part, concentrated on building-product legislation, diverse EU standardization projects and the...