Meeting of the Executive Committee in Brussels

The members of the IUCAB Executive Committee assembled in Brussels on 25th September 2009 at the offices of Confcommercio International. The meeting was chaired by the IUCAB President Mr. Kriton Phitidis.

In attendance were the Vice- Presidents Messrs. Jan Björnum (Sweden), Paul Wakeling (UK), Josep Rifà (Spain), Olivier Mazoyer (France), Ralf Scholz (Germany) and Mrs. Simonetta Maffizoli (Italy). Also in attendance as Observers were Mr. Andreas Paffhausen (Germany) and Mr. Uwe Kroiss (Austria).

Main issues dealt with at the meeting were:

• Progress of the IUCAB Database Project (Agreements have already been concluded with the Austrian Member Association. It is anticipated that early December similar Agreements will be reached with the Associations in the Nordic Countries. Meetings with the Associations in by Jaap Van Till France are being scheduled for the same purpose).
• IUCAB has submitted an opinion paper regarding the European Commission’s proposals for a revision of the Block Exemption regulation and Guidelines on Vertical Agreements.
  The present regulation is due to expire in May 2010. Members of the IUCAB Legal Working Group have cooperated closely in the drafting process of the opinion paper.
  EuroCommerce has given its support to the IUCAB opinion paper and has confirmed this in a letter which was sent to the head of the Commission Department in charge of this matter.
• The proposal for launching the George Hayward Award for the IUCAB International Agent of the Year was unanimously adopted. Eligible for the Award are Commercial Agents who are a member of a IUCAB Member Association and are nominated as a candidate for the Award by their national Association. The Award is in honour of George Hayward who sadly passed away earlier this year. George Hayward was the first US elected Vice President of IUCAB, and his unsurpassed dedication to IUCAB and a continuous quality increase of the performance of Commercial Agents will continue to live on and remembered by all IUCAB Member Associations.
• Presentations were given by Messrs. Kamphöner and Pellegrino of EuroCommerce and who had been invited to particiapate at the meeting in the afternoon as key note speakers.
  IUCAB further strengthens its ties with EuroCommerce which is illustrated by the fact that IUCAB Vice President Mrs. Maffizoli has been elected to the Board of EuroCommerce earlier this year.
• Vision Group issues were dealt with by Mr. Jan Björnum (services, education, legal matters and environment).
• Mr. Olivier Mazoyer who is in charge of The IUCAB blog Flash has asked all member Asociations for their contribution to the second edition which is due to be put on-line in December 2009. The first edition has been very well received by the Members.

The next meeting of the IUCAB Executive Committee will take place in Nicosia (Cyprus) early March 2010 and will be hosted by the IUCAB President and the Cyprus Association of Commercial Agents.