IIW History 1990-2015

qualification schemes, and the development of centres of excellence and technology transfer in regions and emerging countries throughout the world. 18 The strong cooperation and networking between Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia in SE Europe resulted in the 1st South-East European Welding Congress being held in Timi oara, Romania in May 2006, with a theme Welding and Joining Technologies for Sustainable Development and Environment . A workshop along similar lines to those earlier was also held at this Congress and attracted additional representation from countries such as Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Slovenia, Turkey, Moldavia and Macedonia. Some of these, which were not members already, were to join IIW later and strengthen the membership cause even further. A feature of this congress and the accompanying workshop was the attendance of representatives of UNIDO, IAEA, EU and DFID who collectively gave talks on how these agencies could provide assistance to aid developing countries and economies in the region. The Timi oara workshop was to provide a representative model for future networking of both educational and technology centres of excellence within a region, promoted through the presentation of IIW Technology Innovation Workshops. The 2nd South-East European IIW International Congress was held in Sofia, Bulgaria, in October 2010. A key objective of this congress was to provide practical solutions to challenges that the region faced, one of which was the construction and diversification of gas pipelines in SE Europe following the disruption of energy services to the EU during 2006-2008. The congress, therefore, was aimed primarily at providing guidance to Balkan countries on modern trends and recent advances in pipeline technology, more particularly because a network of transnational pipelines were scheduled to be built in the region in the foreseeable future. 19 With the support of IIW Sub-Commission XI-E Transmission Pipelines (C-XI-E)

and attendance of many of the world’s pipeline experts who participated in networking groups, the congress was considered to be an outstanding success. Both Ass. Prof. Dr-Ing. Petar Darjanov and Beloev from the Bulgarian Welding Society played outstanding roles in the organisation and the final outcomes of the International Congress. Building further on the holding of congresses in the region a very successful 3rd International Congress was held in Timi oara in 2015. Mr Bertil Pekkari (Sweden), as President of IIW 2002-2005, placed great

Bertil Pekkari welcoming Brazil to the IIW family

LINKING PEOPLE, JOINING NATIONS