The VEUKO - the association of all European associations of the tiled stove sector met from June 11th – 13th in Marseille in France. 

This year's congress took place at the invitation of the French association AFPMA. VEUKO is the association of European associations of the tiled stove builder and pottery trade and pursues several goals: regular publication of publications, coordination of knowledge exchange, joint processing of future-related tasks and representation of concerns in Europe.

The representatives of the European tiled stove associations meet annually.

After the country reports of the members, the VEUKO management team led by Robert Salvata (Slovakia) and KOV Managing Director Thomas Schiffert reported on the new legislation and the planned EU Ecodesign Directive and the new statement to the authorities written by VEUKO. In addition, information was provided about the rejection of the extension of the coexistence period of the old test standards (e.g. EN 13229) with the new EN 16510 series. This means that from November 2025, all local space heaters placed on the market must be tested in accordance with these new standards. As before, the individual tiled stove is not affected by this.

Numerous other activities such as participation in a large, multinational environmental conference in Slovakia, where contacts were made with environmental authorities in order to bring the calculation of particulate matter emissions to more realistic (lower) values, or the new membership of VEUKO in the interest organisation CEFACD rounded off the report. The VEUKO management team also includes Christian Gross (South Tyrol) and Jens Hilt (Germany), who are responsible for public relations/social media and lobbying. The meeting also saw the presentation of the new VEUKO website www.veuko.com , which has been completely revamped and has an attractive design. 

In addition, the management team attended numerous appointments at industry events at various industry events, such as the World of Fireplaces in Leipzig, where Jens Hilt, Robert Salvata and Thomas Schiffert discussed on the podium or gave lectures, such as at the 30th anniversary celebration of the Czech guild.

As a new VEUKO project, a working group was founded to extend the calculation method for individual tiled stoves (EN 15544) to other designs (e.g. Finnish design "contraflow"). As part of KOK Austria 2026, the VEUKO European Championship in tiled stove construction will also be held again. What is new is that the last winner of the European Championship will also be present on the jury. This is to be done in the future as well. Of course, after the congress, the area around the oldest city in France was also explored: The panorama bus took them to Phokéenne, where the Old Port was visited.

During the Corona pandemic, only virtual meetings took place, but annual "real" meetings are taking place again: The date for the next congress has already been set – it will be held in Munich from 27.5.-29.5.2026. 

The VEUKO Group exploring the historic region of the South of France.

The VEUKO management team: Robert Salvata and Thomas Schiffert