Product category:
Building Regulations and Accreditation
News Release from: Chartered Institute of Building [CIOB]
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 27 February 2004
EU Decision To Bar Surveyors From Desgn
The RICS is protesting at the decision of the European Parliament to approve the European Commission directive which recognises only architects as qualified to carry out building design.
The surveyors' institution says it is continuing to work with national governments in seeking to overturn this decision Despite the support of the majority of United Kingdom and Irish MEPs, the European Parliament voted against an amendment which would have acknowledged that building design may also be carried out by appropriately qualified surveyors and engineers
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 12 Mar 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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As a result, says the RICS, building surveyors in Great Britain and Ireland will be prevented from applying their building design skills in other EU countries, merely because they do not hold the title of architect.
The directive is intended to ease the recognition of professional qualifications in the European Union, but the RICS has criticised the decision of the Parliament as a poor one which blocks UK and Irish construction surveyors from business opportunities in the single market.
Trevor Mole, President of the Association of European Building Surveyors and Building Experts, said that to refer to architects as the only professionals responsible for design was absurd and did not reflect reality.
"Regardless of who undertakes the design" he said, "it is building surveyors in the U.K., involved in statutory building control, that ensure that buildings are designed properly and to satisfactory standards.
To exclude them is blinkered.".
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