Our Association
Our Association
Our activities
Today, the activities we carry out are:
- Training: courses, conferences, seminars, publications.
- Of opinion: debates, round tables, allegations, reports…
- Relations with professional organizations and institutions: College of Civil Engineers, associations of other branches of engineering, Administration through the corresponding Ministries, Schools of Civil Engineers, Royal Academy of Engineering, professional associations, foundations and international organizations.
- Representation in institutions, organizations, working groups, technical committees, specialized journals, and in different professional forums.
- Service to associates through personal attention and assistance in obtaining the advantages derived from the agreements signed with institutions and companies.
- Certificates
- ING EUR securities
- Training courses
- Attendance at conferences
- Information on calls for proposals from other organizations, news of interest, publications and magazines, links of interest.
Our history
The Spanish Association of Civil Engineers dates back to the beginning of the twentieth century, when a group of civil engineers got together to create an organization that, as a guild, would defend their professional interests. Once the Statutes were drafted and officially approved, the Spanish Association of Civil Engineers was formally constituted on January 17, 1903. Eduardo López Navarro was its first President and the Revista de Obras Publicas was its headquarters.
Its main objectives, as stated in the Statures, are:
“To represent its members in all kinds of actions and to promote their union and spirit of collaboration, trying to achieve their maximum quality and professional awareness, based on an adequate technical, social and human training, for a serious, responsible and free exercise of their activity”.
Since then, the Association has faithfully pursued the fulfillment of these goals.
Its private character, of a national nature, allowed it to be from the very first moment the meeting point for colleagues, who until then had had the Revista de Obras Públicas as a meeting, gathering and professional exchange.
From within the Association, the creation of the Spanish Engineering Institute in 1905, of which we are a Founding Member and where we have our headquarters, at number 38, General Arrando Street, Madrid.
College of Civil Engineers
The College and the Association share both a national character and a common goal of defending the civil engineering profession. However, there are three fundamental differences between the two entities:
Firstly, the College is a public law entity, with the powers granted to it by the legislation in force, and the Association is a private law entity, with an independent character. It was the Association, constituted in 1903 to bring together the professionals of Civil Engineering and defend the interests of the guild, which saw the birth of the College in 1954, conceived to promote the organization and defense of the profession from a public law institution. Therefore, the different public and private nature of the College and the Association marks a clear separation between the fields of action of each. The Association therefore enjoys an independence and freedom of opinion that is due only to its associates and not to the Administration, which cannot impose its opinion on it.
Secondly, the Association is a Founding Member of the Institute of Engineering of Spain (IIE), which is made up of 8 other engineering associations that share the headquarters of the General Arrando 38 mansion. This particularity confers to the Association a multidisciplinary field of action that includes not only Civil Engineering, but also other branches of engineering. Therefore, the activities carried out will potentially have a cross-cutting nature that encompasses other areas of engineering, always with a focus on those issues that concern our profession.
Thirdly, the Association has a strong international projection, as it has counterparts in other countries interested in strengthening the association's relations with other countries through private entities. This puts the Association in a privileged position to foster bilateral relations and agreements at the international level with its counterparts and thus promote the international projection of its Associates. The Association is a member of some supranational institutions through the Spanish Engineering Institute.
Both entities maintain a close relationship, as a result of the Collaboration Protocol signed in 2015 and periodically renewed. The objective of this is to avoid duplication and take advantage of the synergies between both entities, in order to offer the best services to its Associates and Members.
