Newsletter

CECIP Newsletter Q4 2020

Dear readers, 

2020 is about to end and I think everyone would agree it has been an interesting year. Of course, the obvious impact of the COVID-19 pandemic made it at times difficult for the European weighing industry. Also CECIP was impacted in several ways such as being forced to organise our General Assembly for the first time, successfully I should say, as online meeting. Despite the difficulties, I’m glad to see that the CECIP work has continued relatively smoothly due to the flexibility and efforts from all members. We carried on with our work by providing input the initiatives from the European Commission, OIML and WELMEC. Moreover, it created new opportunities to bring together various stakeholders to discuss the important topics of the future during two webinars. Our plan is to continue with these types of events to keep the discussions going. 

For CECIP the year was also special because of a number of personal changes. In 2020 we appointed new Presidents of the International Cooperation Group (ICG) and Business & Trade Group (BTG) and I started in my role as CECIP President. Luckily, we are in a luxurious position of taking over a well-run CECIP and working groups from our predecessors. I would like to thanks once more Urs Widmer, Richard Herbert and Roland Nater for their invaluable contributions to CECIP.  

For the future, I’m confident the ICG President Luis Cachón and new BTG President Juan Román will lead these groups to new successes with their own ideas and energy. There are already some exciting plans for the next year. You will hear more details in the coming months and I’m looking forward to working on these new initiatives and to continue with our existing work in 2021.  

However, before starting with the work of 2021, I think we all deserve some...
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CECIP Newsletter Q2 2020

Nick Parsons elected as new CECIP President

At the 70th CECIP General Assembly on 5 June Nick Parsons was elected. as new CECIP President. Nick is currently Deputy Chief Sales Officer at Minebea Intec and has extensive experience within the industry. Additionally he was an active member of the UK and Irish weighing federation and SMA in the US. All this made him an excellent candidate for this position.

The election of Nick Parsons means Urs Widmer will step back as CECIP President, a position he held during the last six years. In his last General Assembly as CECIP President Urs Widmer thanked the CECIP members for their support and was glad to leave CECIP in good hands. “It was a great pleasure to be the CECIP President over the last years. I believe we represented the European weighing industry well due to the great support from all CECIP members in the different working groups. I’m confident Nick will be an outstanding CECIP President leading CECIP in a new decade.”

The handover took place during an online meeting and Nick Parsons’ new role is effective immediately. In his speech Nick Parsons mentioned that he was glad Urs Widmer left him CECIP in the position it is currently in. “First of all, I would like to thank Urs for his passion and commitment to CECIP over the last six years. Thanks to his leadership, the activities of CECIP were brought to the next level. I hope to continue the great work started by Urs during my term, including CECIP’s vision for the European Weighing industry by 2030 and our relationships with the various authorities. I am looking forward to the continued cooperation with the CECIP members, the authorities and our international co-operation partners.”

CECIP Newsletter Q1 2020

CECIP statement on COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has a significant negative impact on the European weighing industry. Although the size of the impact is still uncertain, it is clear that the industry faces major economic problems due to disruptions in supply chains, production and providing services. CECIP, as representative of the weighing industry in Europe, welcomes the wide-range of measures already introduced by Member States and calls on the EU and Member States to continue with new actions. CECIP believes actions should be taken to focus, at least, on the following points:

• Ensure liquidity of companies: Measures that can support companies in ensuring liquidity and being able to pay the bills are highly important. Not only for the weighing industry itself, but for all its suppliers and service providers. This could, for example, be a delay of VAT-payments, short-time work compensation or reducing bills for utilities or rental fees. It is important that bureaucracy should be kept at a minimum for the measures introduced.
• Increase flexibility in deadlines weighing industry: Audits and verifications are carried out on a continuous basis within the weighing industry. Often these need to be done before a certain deadline. Considering the social distancing measures in place in most Member States CECIP believes it is better if deadlines can be extended.
• Retain personnel with right skills: In the last years the European weighing industry is experiencing difficulties with attracting sufficient personnel with the right skills. It is important that the employees currently working in the industry can be retained, despite possibly temporary unemployment and cashflow problems. Short-time work compensation as introduced in several countries is a vital measure that should be introduced as widely and flexible as possible.
• Keep supply chains and borders open: The supply chains of the weighing industry are...
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CECIP Newsletter Q4 2019

CECIP Vision 2030: How the weighing industry should look in the next 10 years

The European weighing industry is constantly changing and it is important that with these changes coming the industry remains competitive, consumers are protected and innovations are introduced. Therefore, the right decisions need to be made to ensure all this in the next decade. In the new CECIP Vision 2030, CECIP presents its vision for the future of the European weighing industry and describes what should change, established and implemented in order to reach the industry´s full potential. Improvements are possible on aspects that will benefit users, society and the weighing industry. In five chapters the main elements are presented by CECIP, these are:

• Harmonisation
• CECIP believes there should be a true EU single market for both placing weighing instruments on the market and for reverification services
• Consumer protection
• Market surveillance should ensure consumer protection. CECIP is willing to cooperate with authorities to improve market surveillance. This should also result in less unfair competition.
• Digitalisation
• The weighing industry is becoming more digital. It is important that legislation is in place that fosters innovation and does not compromise consumer protection.
• Industrial strategy 
• A true general EU industrial strategy is needed for the European industry to remain competitive in the coming decade
• Globalisation
• The weighing industry is becoming more global. CECIP will strengthen its cooperation with its international partners and supports the work of OIML.

This vision serves as internal guidelines on the main CECIP priorities for the coming years and will be presented at different occasions. The full CECIP Vision 2030 can be found here.

CECIP presents Vision 2030 during dinner debate

On Thursday evening 21 November CECIP organised a dinner...
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CECIP Newsletter Q3 2019

CECIP event: The European weighing industry in 2030

On Thursday 21 November CECIP will present its Vision 2030 during a dinner event in Brussels. At the event representatives from the European Commission, Member States and CECIP will present their view on the European weighing industry in 2030. Participants will join the discussions on several aspects of the CECIP Vision 2030 such as harmonisation, market surveillance and digitalisation. Speakers at the dinner include Mr Pettinelli (Director DG Grow European Commission), CECIP President Urs Widmer, CECIP Board member and managing partner of Espera Werke Marcus Korthäuer.

The dinner will take place at Club Royals des Guides in Brussels and starts at 18.45. All stakeholders and CECIP members are invited and can register via the following link: cecipvision2030.eventbrite.com

Fragmented reverification requirements cost industry over 6 million euro per year

The EU Single Market for goods and services is one of the key pillars of the European cooperation. It brings major benefits to industries such as the European weighing industry. CECIP welcomes the EU Single Market and calls on EU decision maker to strengthen it further by harmonising the reverification requirements for weighing instruments.

The fragmented legislation is a major problem for the weighing industry. CECIP carried out a survey amongst its members concluding that 50% of the companies in the European weighing industry don´t carry out reverifications abroad and the main reason is fragmented legislation. Moreover, for the companies that carry out reverifications already, the total costs of the differences in legislation are estimated over 6 million euro per year. For the weighing industry this is a large amount of resources that cannot be invested in other areas such as R&D.

Therefore, CECIP calls on two...
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