Roman Blažíček was elected President of the CET

RAKO Director at the helm of the European Ceramic Tile Manufacturers Federation for the next 3 years

Roman Blažíček, director of the Lasselsberger s.r.o. and thereby also of the Czech tile brank Rako, was elected President of the European Ceramic Tile Manufacturers Federation, CET. For three years he will exert influence on the objectives and concepts of the European tile industry.

With Czech tile manufacturer Rako, Roman Blažíček leads one of the biggest European manufacturers of ceramic tiles since 2005. The company currently employs more than 1,500 employees and invested around 50 Million Euros in modernization, sustainability and new technologies in the last two years alone.

"The European industry will face great challenges in the next ten years", said Roman Blažíček. "Especially production sectors with a high energy demand have to fear the loss of their competitiveness. And ceramics are not exempted from that." That is the reason why issues such as the environment, climate change, alternative energies, research and innovation as well as fair trade - not just in Europe, but worldwide - will be some of the focal areas of his CET presidency.

Blažíček emphasized that the changes from new ways in the EU climate policy could have dramatic consequences for manufacturers in the industry: "In the dialogue with European politicians, we have to search for ideas, which do not just enable our survival, but also enable further development", Blažíček said. The Brussels-based CET represents the interests of the European tile industry, among other things when it comes to speaking at the EU with one voice. Beyond that it is part of the "Cerame-Unie", an overarching alliance for further ceramic production sectors, such as bricks and roof tiles, porcelain, sanitary ceramics, fire-resistant materials and technical ceramics.