Mr Jean-Camille Uring is elected President of CECIMO

12 November 2013

BRUSSELS, 12 November 2013 – During the CECIMO Fall General Assembly held on 9 November 2013 in Vienna, Mr Jean-Camille Uring was elected as new President of the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries (CECIMO) for a period of two years. He has been entrusted the responsibility of leading the European Association which represents 34% of the world machine tool production.

Mr Uring succeeds in this position to Mr Martin Kapp, Managing Director of Kapp Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH and Chairman of VDW, the German Machine Tool Builders’ Association. Mr Kapp has striven to explain the European machine tool industry’s strategic importance to European authorities and other stakeholders. The fact that CECIMO is a member of the European Commission’s High-Level Group on Key Enabling Technologies clearly reflects the central role of the machine tool industry in boosting the European economy’s competitiveness.
Mr Uring thanked Mr Kapp for his devoted work and confirmed his commitment to continue to support the momentum of progress seized within CECIMO.

Priorities of the new Presidency
After his election, Jean-Camille Uring stated: “We need to focus on further promoting the strategic importance of our industry towards European authorities and citizens. I will make sure that manufacturing and re-industrialisation remain on top of economic policy priorities in the EU.” He thinks the EU’s attention on advanced manufacturing provides the machine tool industry with a favourable moment to voice its needs more bravely and loudly.
Jean-Camille Uring’s main goal is to ensure that the necessary policy, regulatory and social framework conditions are in place for the machine tools companies to thrive and grow through innovation. “We know what is needed to keep our industry world competitive,” he adds, “energy efficiency, innovation, market access, skills and training, and market surveillance are already on CECIMO’s agenda.

At operational level, Mr Uring is planning to centre CECIMO’s strategic priorities on the European Commission’s Industrial Policy Communication’s four pillars:

1-    Investment in innovation
CECIMO defends the interest of its sector in the Horizon 2020 framework and will ensure that machines tools are prioritized in regional smart specialisation strategies as a strategic investment area. CECIMO will continue its dialogue with the EU Task Force on advanced manufacturing technologies who is drafting a recommendation to facilitate capital to investments in productive equipment, on the demand side.

CECIMO will further promote the Blue Competence Machine Tools initiative, which provides customers with a reliable standard to measure the sustainability and saving potential of their machine-tool capital expenditures. CECIMO is the first mechanical engineering sector to launch a sustainability initiative at European level.

2-    Better market conditions
CECIMO continues advocating the simplification of the regulatory framework and reduction of unnecessary burden on manufacturers. CECIMO lobbies to ensure a simplified framework for uniform and effective market surveillance in Europe, which creates a level playing field for manufacturers.

CECIMO will soon present a solid methodology to implement self-regulation under the Ecodesign Directive.

Regarding international markets, we will be following up closely the EU’s bilateral trade negotiations, especially with India and the US. Besides policy instruments, CECIMO also owns market instruments like the international exhibition EMO and the Asian exhibition EMTE-EASTPO to even the playing field for its companies who want to export.

3-    Access to finance and capital
CECIMO will continue to provide input to the Commission and the European Investment Bank who seek to mobilise both public and private funds for the benefit of manufacturing businesses.

The EU’s energy efficiency directive will also be on CECIMO’s radar screen since it has the potential to mobilize national support measures facilitating investments in energy efficient production systems.

4-    Human capital and skills
The CECIMO Skills’ Manifesto was published in October 2013, to address the skills challenge the industry in facing. It is essential to promote it effectively to policy-makers in Brussels as well as in our Member States through national associations to have our political messages to be heard.

CECIMO has recently launched the DESIGN-MTS project, which focuses on increasing the visibility of training-related best practices in the machine tool industry. This project will help boost the ‘sustainable image’ of the industry throughout the value chain, as well as towards policy-makers and the society.

About Jean-Camille Uring
Jean-Camille Uring is Executive Board Member of Fives since 2006. He began his career with the Fives group in 1975, after graduating from the “École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures” in Paris.

Jean-Camille Uring first joined the Group as an engineer at Heurtey-Métallurgie (now Fives Stein). In 1984, he became head of Fives Celes, specialized in induction heating systems. As of 1998, Mr. Uring became COO of Fives Cinetic, the Manufacturing Technologies division of Fives Group, leading in automation, assembly processes and machining centres, before being appointed Member of the Executive Board of Fives.

Mr Uring has considerable experience in sectorial associations. He was re-elected as President of Symop for a second 2-year term in 2013, where he works at uniting manufacturing technology businesses for a stronger and better collective action.

Jean-Camille Uring was member of the Board of CECIMO prior to his appointment as President. He will be assisted in his work by Dr Frank Brinken (CH), CEO of Starrag Group Holding AG, Mr Giancarlo Losma (IT), President of Losma S.p.A., and Mr Jarmo Hyvönen (FI) Senior Advisor at Fastems OY AB.

About CECIMO
CECIMO is the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries. We bring together 15 national Associations of Machine Tool Builders, which represent approximately 1500 industrial enterprises in Europe*, over 80% of which are SMEs. CECIMO covers 98% of total Machine Tool production in Europe and about one third worldwide. It accounts for almost 150,000 employees and a turnover of nearly €22 billion in 2012. More than three quarters of CECIMO production is shipped abroad, whereas half of it is exported outside Europe*. For more information visit www.cecimo.eu.
*Europe = EU + EFTA + Turkey

For further media enquiries:
Contact person: Filip Geerts, Director General
Tel +32 2 502 70 90 / Fax +32 2 502 60 82
filip.geerts@cecimo.eu

PICTURE OF MR JEAN-CAMILLE URING AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST