Review of the 59th ARGE Conference
ARGE held its 59th Annual Conference and first Technical Meeting in Düsseldorf, 14-17 September 2011. ARGE is a Trade Association that represents Lock and Hardware Manufacturers within Europe and Scandinavia.
Technical
Thirty delegates attended the Technical Meeting with reports on European Hardware Standards, differences between the future Construction Products Regulation and the recent Construction Products Directive and Special Fire Resistance Requirements of Doors.
Guest Speaker, Hans Peters the director of IBU, the German Institute for Sustainability construction Industry explained the importance of the Environmental Products Declaration.
ARGE Board
The departing President David Whitworth (DHF, UK) was made Honorary President. The post of president will now become Chairman and is now held by Jorma Sirén (Abloy Oy, Finland). He stated that “ARGE needs to move forward and grow stronger”.
Sirén is joined by two new Executives, Paul Browne (Assa Abloy, UK) and Denis Schnoebelen (Mantion S.A.S., France).
Annual Conference
The Conference was held over two days. Highlights included, Jackie Sinclair gave a cautionary presentation on accountability through the supply chain.
ARGEs has authority to directly lobby the European Commission and to emphasise its political power they invited Karl-Heinz Florenz (M.E.P.) who emphasised the willingness of Members of the European Parliament to work with Trade Associations.
Arjen Koole revealed his findings and demonstrated with graphs how the Hardware Market is suffering from the economic downturn. ARGE will strive to help its members through this hard time and wish to see growth in the Market at its 60th Conference.