At the start

It all began in the year 1983.

The adjudicative authorities had, and still have, the legal obligation of controlling that products integrated on road works meet to the requirements defined by specifications. Administrators as well as building contractors felt concerned about, but they generally had no time and no experience enough to fulfil the task competently.

According to the Belgian decree on "general building conditions" the task could be delegated to an impartial organism.
For that purpose, the two groups concerned worked on and created an (independent) impartial organism of control.

The first group involved was formed by the Belgian authorities, and the representatives of the three Belgian political Regions.
The second group consisted of the Federation of building contractors for road works.

This is how COPRO was born!

Mission statement

An organisation’s mission statement sets out both its raison d’être and its identity. A mission statement is timeless and is not always subject to debate.

Just to be clear, a short, understandable description of the mission, vision and objectives was determined.
For the “mission statement”, this is:

“Why we’re here”

Although “Vision” is at the top of the agenda for many organisations, “Goal” is our starting point. This is because COPRO’s mission statement has already been laid down.

COPRO’s work involves organising, coordinating, harmonising and promoting quality in the construction sector, particularly by means of quality control on construction products and how they are treated, the latter at the project owner’s request.

In a nutshell: “to organise, coordinate, harmonise and promote quality in the construction sector”

Values

An organisation’s fundamental values act as a kind of moral compass and lie at the very heart of its business culture.

These are moral goals or ideals that we pursue and appreciate, and which also provide motivation.

“What we believe in”

COPRO’s values are impartiality, integrity, skill and reliability.

Vision

Vision gives a visionary, ambitious idea of what an organisation would like to be and, above all, how it wants to achieve this.

“What we want to achieve and how we go about achieving it”

COPRO’s vision is to step the general quality of infrastructure projects up a gear by ensuring that construction products and applications obtain a qualitative added value that meets the customer’s expectations. We accomplish this by certifying and/or inspecting or checking the processes linked to these products and their applications in a structured, rational and economical way.

This added value lies in the fields of quality, durability and sustainability, whilst at the same time promoting health, safety and the environment. All necessary attention is paid to the working conditions and safety of our members of staff.

In a nutshell: “to provide construction products that meet expectations with added value by certifying and carrying out checks on products and their applications”

Goals

These are the desired long-term results of our vision.

“What we want to achieve”

based on three cornerstones :

Performance

Service excellence

using certification to promote quality
continuing to be recognised as THE standard in terms of impartiality, integrity, skill and reliability
operating efficiently within the legislative and regulatory framework
strengthen partnerships working with other bodies
developing services in support of project owners and contractors

People

Social excellence

looking after the well-being of staff and contacts
managing general and individual knowledge
New Work

Planet

Sustainable excellence

Integrating durability (sustainability + durability):

in our work
in the way we operate

Reports & Magazines

Annual report 2020

Annual report 2019

Annual report 2018

&CO Magazine 2017

Annual report 2017

Annual report 2016

Annual report 2015

Annual report 2014

Annual report 2013

Annual report 2012

Annual report 2011

Annual report 2010

Annual report 2009

Organization

General Assembly Board of Directors External Organization

Effective Members

Public Institutions
Flemish Region	Mr. Filip Boelaert - President Ms. Eva Van den Bossche Mr. Pieter De Winne
Brussels-Capital Region	Ms. Ilse Wuyts Mr. Mohamed Aarab

Building contractors
FBEV - BFAW - Brussels	Mr. Luk Geeroms
FBEV - BFAW	Mr. Bernard Cornez
VlaWeBo - Antwerpen	Mr. Marc Lauwers
VlaWeBo - Limburg	Mr. Paul Heleven
VlaWeBo - Oost-Vlaanderen	Mr. Tom Willemen - Vice-president
VlaWeBo - Vlaams Brabant	Mr. Frank Coppens
VlaWeBo - West-Vlaanderen	Ms. Ingrid De Vriese
FWEV - Luxembourg	Mr. Pol Hanoul
FWEV - Namur	Mr. Jean-Jacques Nonet
Bouwunie Infrastructuurwerken	Mr. Jerome Vanroye

Joining members

Nevul	Mr. Eddy Casters
Labo Devlieger - Van Vooren	Ms. Géraldine Welvaert
Laborex groep	Mr. Serge Vermeren
Aquafin	Mr. Danny Baeten

COPRO is an impartial organism and a non-profit-making organization.

The General Assembly is the “upper representative“ of COPRO. It consists of effective members and joining members.

The “effective” members are legal personae that belong to one of the two founder groups.

The public institutions, that is the representatives of the Flemish and Brussels-Capital Regions, represent 50 % of the votes. They choose the president of the General Assembly.

The building contractors represent 50 % of the votes as well. They choose the vice-president of the General Assembly. At the present time, this group is formed by:

la FBEV- de BFAW (The Belgian federation of building contractors for road works),
the Bouwunie-infrastructuur (Flemish Union of SME-Construction),
the provincial divisions of
- VlaWeBo (Flemish federation of building contractors for road works),
- FWEV (Walloon federation of building contractors for road works).

Other legal personae can become joining members of COPRO on proposition of the General Assembly, however without getting the right to vote.

Public Institutions

Flemish Region	Mr. Filip Boelaert - President Ms. Eva Van den Bossche Mr. Pieter De Winne
Brussels-Capital Region	Ms. Ilse Wuyts

Building Contractors

The Belgian federation of building contractors for road works (la FBEV- de BFAW)

Mr. Tom Willemen - Vice-president
Mr. Bernard Cornez
Mr. David Lamy
Mr. Didier Block
Mr. Eli Desmedt
Mr. Jerome Vanroye (Bouwunie)
Mr. Luk Geeroms

COPRO is managed by a Board of Directors.
The Directors are chosen by:

The public institutions and
The building contractors

Every group represents 50% of the votes.

The external organization of COPRO runs as follows:

General assembly

Group of public institutions
Group of building contractors

Board of Administration

Group of public institutions
Group of building contractors

Administration Committee

Chairman Board of Administration
Vice-chairman Board of Administration
CEO

Regional Committees

Members General Assembly and Board of a Concerned customers
Concerned groupings

Customers

Individual products
Publical property developers
Private property developers
Other certification institutions
Other control institutions
A third party

Committees and Working groups

Advisory body
Certification committees
Professional committees
European sectorgroups
Norm Committees
Advisory Committee
Several working groups

Quality supervision

BELAC

Impartiality

The structure of COPRO as a 'third party' guarantees its independence vis-à-vis the parties that avail themselves of it. COPRO's statutory objective also excludes it from itself being the designer, supplier, purchaser, owner or user of the products in relation to which it is called on or involved as such or from acting as a representative for these products.

The impartiality of COPRO is guaranteed by the constitution of its organs:

Administrative

General Assembly
Board of Directors
Governing committee

To ensure the expertise and independence of its certification activities, COPRO has established several committees, including a supervisory Advisory Committee and various advisory boards or sectoral commissions.

The Advisory Committee has the task of ensuring the impartiality of the activities of the certification body through, e.g.:

advice on the independent operation of the various advisory boards;
advice on the impartiality of the certification activities of the certification body;
advice on the objectivity and feasibility and reliability of the certification activities of the certification body;
advice on the identified risks and the measures taken with regard to impartiality and potential conflicts of interest.

The Advisory Committee is composed of representatives of all demonstrably interested and knowledgeable parties active in the sector.

A special advisory board or sectoral commission shall be established for each Implementing Regulation, and therefore for each product, which is responsible for managing and monitoring the use of the COPRO or BENOR mark for the product in question.

This specialised technical advisory board or sectoral commission deals with the technical aspects of certification, determines the rules to be applied to a specific COPRO or BENOR certification (by preparing and modifying the Technical Prescriptions and Application Regulations), and the desired level of quality for which the COPRO or BENOR mark must act as guarantor.

The advisory board or sectoral commission is composed of representatives of all the demonstrably interested and knowledgeable parties in the area of the product in question.

The impartiality of COPRO is confirmed by the FPS-Economy and is audited by BELAC (Belgian Organization for Accreditation).

COPRO is

the holder of the certification marks COPRO for building products, COPRO.EXE for execution and NTMB for ecological and technical-natural materials

accredited by BELAC as inspection body (nr. 107-INSP), as products certification body (nr. 107-PROD) and as certification body for quality systems (nr. 107-QMS)

notified by Europe for CE-marking as notified body nr. 1137

recognised by NBN as sector operator

recognised by BENOR npo as sector body

certified by OVAM for the sampling of building materials and asbestos in heaps

recognised by BUtgb as mandated certification institute

recognised by SKAO as a certificate body for the system certification of the CO2 Performance Ladder

recognized by OVAM as certification body for asbestos

recognized by OVAM as certification body for recycled granulates