77 / 234
LINKING PEOPLE, JOINING NATIONS
between the two organisations was founded primarily on the fact that IIW would financially
benefit from the use of EWF documentation and that this would be unreasonable from
EWF’s point of view. A compromise, therefore, was reached that IIW’s role in the scheme
would be established in a similar way to that of EWF, whereby IIWANBs would pay a fixed
fee plus a variable fee based on the sale of diplomas.
To ensure no dispute could arise, IIW then drafted a resolution saying
that it did not intend to receive income in excess of its costs for the operation
of its scheme. Therefore, any fees paid to IIW by IIW ANBs should only
amount to IIW’s administration costs.
14
This resolution was subsequently
passed by the Governing Council. Prof. Dr-Ing. Detlef von Hofe (Germany),
who often acted as a ‘peacemaker’ in discussions between IIW and EWF,
responded by saying that since IIW was not making any profit from the
scheme, recognition by IIW of the EWF ANBs, without audit,
would be considered fair compensation.
15
For some time
the IIW ANBs outside of Europe paid a fixed fee of
5 000 euro (EUR) whereas European EWF and IIW
ANBs paid a fixed fee of EUR 3 000
Further discussion did continue with IIW and the CEO
of EWF, Prof. Dr-Ing. Luisa Quintino, and the President of EWF
Mr Van den Brug. A formal agreement, in principle, was then
signed at theAnnual Assembly in San Francisco, USA in 1997
to develop an international scheme based on the EWF system.
This formal agreement which eventuated between EWF and
IIW was aimed at allowing cooperation for the delivery of
this scheme, both in Europe and worldwide, leading to a single unified
system. In doing so, EWF would also have the right to deliver IIW
diplomas to IIWmembers and to new members in its current sphere
of activity in Europe since some countries, not yet members of
IIW, had already accredited their ANBs through EWF. There
was to be no payment of royalties and IIW would eventually be
privy to confidential documentation through a licence agreement
which commenced in 1999. Preliminary work to establish IIW’s
IAB then continued with an agreement for Instituto de Soldadura
e Qualidade (ISQ) in Portugal to act as the IIW IAB Secretariat,
which was convenient for both partners because ISQ was
already acting as the Secretariat for the EWF scheme. Mrs Rute
Ferraz was appointed as Chief Executive Officer for the IAB
Secretariat and continues to successfully undertake that role.
Detlef von Hofe
Luisa Quintino