Current status of the Eurocodes in the Balkan region Side-event to the 12th Annual meeting of CEN&CENELEC event

The workshop "Current status of the Eurocodes in the Balkan region" was held on 9 June 2016 in Skopje. The Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology (IZIIS), Skopje, organized the workshop, in cooperation with the Directorate General Joint Research Centre and CEN-CENELEC within the frame of the 12th Annual meeting of the CEN&CENELEC, which was held on June 8 and 9, 2016 in Skopje.

The workshop focused on further adoption and implementation of the Eurocodes in non-EU countries in the Balkan region building upon previous workshops organized by DG JRC in the Balkan region within the framework of the JRC Enlargement and Integration action.

The main objectives of the workshop were to:

• assess recent progress, difficulties and needs (current status) for adoption and implementation of the Eurocodes in the non-EU countries from the Balkan region;
• explore possibilities for organizing regional training courses/summer schools/seminars supported by European Commission's JRC Enlargement and Integration Action in order to further facilitate the implementation of the Eurocodes in the Balkan region and
• announce the possibilities the JRC will offer in opening its research infrastructures to external users linked to the Enlargement and Integration Action of DG JRC.

In total, 34 participants attended the Workshop among which 26 from non-EU countries in the Balkan region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo(*) and Montenegro), 4 invited experts from CEN&CENELEC and DG JRC, 2 representatives from Croatian Standard Institute and 2 USAID representatives from Kosovo(*).

Detailed information on the workshop, brief summary of the disseminated information and general conclusions, can be found in the report "Current status of the Eurocodes in the non-EU countries in the Balkan region".

(*) This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.