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Introduction CEI-Bois, the European Confederation of woodworking industries, was founded in 1952 and represents the interests of the European woodworking industry, which includes more than 100,000 companies employing around 2.7 million workers in EU25. The primary goal of CEI-Bois is to further the interests of the European wood sector and to this end, it aims to influence EU policy-making. It is the main body representing and defending the interests of the European woodworking and furniture industries towards the European Union. The day-to-day management of CEI-Bois is assured by the secretariat in Brussels, supported by a number of working groups dealing with lobbying (international, environmental and technical dossiers), research and development, competence (social affairs, training and education) and communication. Additional ad hoc working groups are established as needed. A Board and a General Assembly monitor this work. CEI-Bois is an umbrella organization with 35 members in two categories, national associations (27) and branch organizations (8).
CEI-Bois is the natural and well-established representative for the European Woodworking Industry. It also provides a common European platform and gives a “European status” for the work with international projects e.g. building regulation and standarisation in Japan and China. In this particular case it has given a mandate to the European Wood Initiative (EWI). CEI-Bois has formulated a clear vision and strategy within the Roadmap 2010 for the woodworking industries. CEI-Bois also works closely together with CEPI (European Pulp and Paper Industry), CEPF (Confederation of European Private Forest Owners) and EUSTAFOR (European State Forest Association) by forming the “Forest-based Industry Forum” on common strategic issues of which the Forest-based Technology Platform (FTP) is one. |
