The European Committee for Oil Hydraulics and Pneumatics was founded in 1962. Over 700 businesses from 13 European countries are represented in CETOP by the national fluid technology associations. The member associations are from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovenia and Spain.
The objective of CETOP is to promote and support the European fluid technology industry. The committee is particularly important in relation to the European Union. National interests can be harmonised across Europe to approach the European Commission with one voice.
CETOP provides its members with information that is often not available elsewhere. This information includes for instance statistics and economic data. Joint public relations work is also undertaken by means of various publications and by CETOP stands at related trade shows. Recommendations for further training in the area of hydraulics and pneumatics are also prepared.
CETOP also makes it possible to form a common opinion on topics related to international standardisation and EU directives and to harmonise ideas at European level. Long before the responsible ISO committee was founded, CETOP published technical recommendations for fluid technology. Today CETOP still has a leading role in the preparation of technical standards for example in the area of hydraulic fluids and contamination checks.
In total, since the existence of the European committee, over 100 technical recommendations have been prepared, some of which have been published worldwide as ISO standards. The preparation of standards and recommendations in collaboration with the national standardisation organisations and the related ISO and CEM technical committees is a correspondingly important task of CETOP.