On the way to
a Single Standart

The Association of Manufacturers of Equipment, Chemical Products and Swimming Pool Builders (ASOFAP) with headquarters in Barcelona, has become the international promoter of the proposal for a Single Standard, that is capable of controlling, in a unified manner and with quality criteria, all manufacturing, building and maintenance processes of swimming pools within European countries.

To achieve this objective, ASOFAP has developed an international lobby group, from the meeting in Barcelona, of representatives of active official Associations: Portugal (APP), France (CSIP), United Kingdom (SPATA) and Italy (ASSOPISCINE), thereby starting up the prescribed procedure to start discussions with the European Commission.

This initiative is the result of the proposal put forward by businessmen and experts of the swimming pool industry, members of the Association, in view of the international situation where different standards of the EU not only jeopardise international transactions and professionalism of the sector, but also significantly affect the user, who finds a great lack of information and tends to acquire equipment, that in spite of being authorised to be sold on the market, is not the most suitable or does not have the required conditions.

Swimming pool regulations have a clear objective: to ensure the safety and health of users. In this sense, a Single Standard would guarantee greater safety in the use of installations, better health control and reduced cost in terms of profitability, maintenance and duration, in public, private, semi-private pools, hydrotherapy installations or aquatic parks. With regard to this aspect, representatives of different countries convened by ASOFAP, all coincide in the importance of training and consider that without good pool staff training, proper maintenance, safety, the application of products and the incorporation of new technology are impossible.

Advantages of harmonisation

ASOFAP, one of whose objectives is to defend the financial and commercial interests of its associates, also sustains that different regulations jeopardise the international projection of businesses, and therefore a Single Standard would be advantageous for Manufacturers of Equipment, Chemical Products and Pool Builders. These would have the quality and certification criteria not only to assist manufacture, but also the international trade of products, equipment and installations. The importance of a Single Standard lies in the fact that it would reduce the considerable differences currently existing in Spain and in Europe in such basic aspects as building, water recirculation, heating, safety, maintenance and training. In this sense, although they admit to have more unified and precise legislation, representatives of different countries all state the importance of a Single Standard, which would also simplify revision and up-dating as new demands and technologies are incorporated.
With regard to Spain, all standards are recent. There were no standards until 1987 when the Catalan Government published the first one through Decree 193/19. From then on, other regions have all passed legislation on swimming pools, and therefore today, each Autonomous Region has its own regulations, with significant differences between them. Apart from the 17 standards currently in force, some Local Councils also have their own regulations.
Antonio Llastarri, President of ASOFAP, described the meeting held on 18th February with international representatives, as highly positive. During this meeting, it was decided to create a Work Committee, with the purpose of structuring the tasks to be conducted and setting a time schedule. One of the first tasks was to compile all European standards, make a comparison between them, and to list the associations that will act as correspondents in each country. The relation mechanisms with governmental and EU organisms involved in the negotiation, were also started-up.
The committee held its following meeting in Paris (26th May, see previous information) and the Work Group plans to meet again in Lyon on 16th November, coinciding with PISCINE 2000.