Centexbel takes charge of the ISO/TC 219 secretariat on "Floorcovering"

In agreement with Fedustria, Centexbel will run the secretariat of the international ISO committee ISO/TC 219, the international counterpart of CEN/TC 134. Both secretariats are important for the Flemish carpet and floorcovering sector and are now directed by Centexbel. In this way the secretariats of the European and international standard committees on floorcovering are now in the same hands.
Until recently, the ISO/TC219 secretariat was assured by the Korean standardisation institute KATS. When earlier this year, KATS decided to quit the ISO/TC219 secretariat, the textile sector asked Centexbel to apply for the task. In the meantime, this application has been approved by ISO and in June, the transition will take place. Fred Foubert, until now mainly active in European standardisation, as e.eg. the secretary of the standardisation committee on geotextiles, and since 2012 also of CEN/TC 134, will take on the assignment. His yearlong experience with all aspects of standardisation will certainly come in handy. Since many years, Centexbel is playing a major role in the Belgian and European standardisation related to textiles. For example, after the transition of the former BIN/IBN to the NBN, Centexbel acts as the Belgian sector operator in several standardisation committees and has created Belgian Mirror Committees to monitor the European and international standardisation together with and in favour of the Belgian textile companies. In a number of cases, Centexbel has taken charge of European Work groups (WG) and technical committees (TC) on the demand of the sector. For example, Centexbel has taken over the secretariat of the European standardisation commission on floorcoverings, from BSI. This committee CEN/TC 134 develops the European standards for various types of floorcoverings, such as vinyl, laminated floorcoverings, and of course carpets. On a Belgian level there is a mirror committee - directed by Centexbel - uniting some twenty companies who give and receive feedback on all that is going on in European and international standardisation. By taking over the ISO/TC 219 secretariat, we can take care of a better harmonisation of the activities in both ISO and CEN in the field of floorcovering, which will make it easier for our companies to follow this up.