DemolitionNews secures world exclusive interview with new EDA president.
The European Demolition Association conference in Warsaw, Poland this past weekend heralded the appointment of a new EDA president, Giuseppe Panseri. In this exclusive interview, Panseri shares his hopes and aspirations with DemolitionNews.com’s Mark Anthony.
What do you think you will bring to the EDA as its new president?
I hope to be able to introduce the EDA to new generations of demolition contractors; the youth is our future.
How will your presidency differ from that of your predecessor, Yves Canessa?
There will not be any major changes – I will continue along the same lines as Yves.
Yves Canessa made it clear that he was looking to expand the EDA into new territories, holding conferences in Turkey and more recently in Poland. Is this something that your presidency will continue to pursue?
The EDA’s aim is to get all European countries into the organisation, but there is no strategic plan to ‘conquer’ any particular part of Europe. Choosing the host countries for conferences is more a logistical than a political decision and also takes into consideration a policy of rotating around the various countries.
What are the primary aims of your presidency?
I have two main aims:
1. To promote and invigorate the new generation of European demolition contractors, and bring them into the EDA.
2. To establish a pan-European system to regulate workers’ qualifications.
The EDA seems stronger and more stable than it was a few years ago. Why is that?
It is down to a combination of factors rather than one single reason. The association has a stronger sense of purpose, as the first European high reach guidance notes demonstrate. An established programme of meetings between the national associations of the different European countries is allowing us to tackle common problems and find shared solutions. And the stability and good work of the Danish secretariat over the past few years has also been very helpful.
The new EDA High Reach Guidance is now complete. What will the association focus on next?
This has not yet been decided, but training is sure to be one of the subjects that the EDA will insist on looking at.
If you were European president for a day, what would you do to improve the demolition industry?
I would have a big clean up. There are too many unqualified companies operating in the market, putting safety at risk and ruining the overall professionalism of the sector.
There should be a system of certification which could establish who is qualified to operate in the demolition industry and who is not.
