- AREA is now recognized as the official association representing refrigeration and air conditioning contractors in Europe. AREA is seen as a partner of reference, to be dealt with, by the EU Authorities
- The required skills of refrigeration personnel and companies are now well understood by all stake holders : EC (DG Environment, DG Industry, DG Education & Culture (Vocational Training), IGPOL, FACE, ...), MEP, COREPER Members, Member States, NGO’s, other industrial associations (EPEE, ASERCOM, EUROVENT-CECOMAF, ECSLA, ...), end-users
- Six-monthly General Assemblies of AREA Members are held in Brussels in Autumn and in another European country in Spring
- AREA manages to obtain consensus positions among its Members who may have different standpoints
and more practically and recently
- supporting the contractors’position in the European Climate Change Programme negotiations; proposing amendments to be included in the proposed EU F-gas legislation (competence of personnel and companies, performance tests, machine cards and logbooks, maximum leakage rates, end of life disposal, minimum operative technical instrumentation, certification and control procedure implemented by Member State's organisations)
- and working on European essential requirements for mandatory National certification and control schemes for personnel AND RAC companies
- monitoring currently the Waste Electric & Electronic Equipment Directive, the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive, the Eco-design and End-use Equipment Directive, the Energy Efficiency in Buildings Directive, the draft on Ecolabelling of Heat Pump Systems
- a 3-year project supported by the EC (Leonardo da Vinci programme - Vocational Training) : The Refrigeration Craftsman; the aim was to establish an AREA industrial European standard for craftsmanship in the field of refrigeration with the objective of securing a uniform and proper level of education and training throughout Europe
§ a new 3-year European Research Project : MINIREF, an innovative technology for different sectors in refrigeration (commercial cooling, industrial cooling, air conditioning, heat pumps, …) resulting in a drastic reduction of greenhouse gases (up to 95%), covering the bulk of the refrigeration installations in Europe; extension of the project to natural refrigerants
- intervening in the CEN TC 182 meetings on standards mainly through our Swedish and Dutch Members
- Life Cycle Cost guidelines for refrigeration systems (SAVE programme)
- informing the Members efficiently through the monthly AREA Newsletters
- maintaining an informative website and providing links to the national Member associations
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