The Slovenian Fire Protection Association / Slovensko združenje za požarno varstvo (SZPV) was established in 1993, by a group of individuals, representatives from companies and institutions, committed to work in the field of fire protection, with a goal to raise the level of fire safety. SZPV is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, with a status of the organization acting in the public interest on the national level.
Scope of work / main activities:
- cooperation with organizations (insurance companies, manufacturers of fire protection products in buildings, ministries, chamber of engineers, architects, of commerce and industry, fire service, other non-governmental organizations from different fields (voluntary fire brigades, of people with disabilities, tourism organizations, etc.)), and individuals (fire engineers, etc.) and others working in the field of fire protection in Slovenia and abroad;
- organization of conferences, seminars, workshops, training courses and other forms of education and training;
- taking part in the preparation of technical regulations and standards on the national level;
- preparation of guidelines and recommendations (published on the website www.szpv.si). Most of SZPV guidelines are incorporated in system of national technical regulation.
- Publishing magazine Požar (Fire), 4 issues per year, regularly since 1995;
- preparing guidelines for ministries;
- cooperation with other associations in Europe (SZPV is a member of European association CFPA-E and East-European association ECEUFIRE) and around the world (SZPV is an
- associated member of CFPA International). SZPV prepared some guidelines in cooperation with CFPA-E.
Organization of SZPV is defined in the Statute, in compliance with Non-governmental Organizations Act:
- The General Assembly is the highest body of SZPV. It consists of all association members (220). The General Assembly meeting is organized at least once per year.
- Management Board with 7 voting members (president (official association representative) + vice-president + 5 members) is the executive body of the Association and is elected by
- General Assembly.
- There are 2 employees in the SZPV Professional Service (Secretary General and Project Manager), implementing decisions made by Management Board, and 14 independent contractors (lecturers & trainers, including 8 primary trainers, trained in the scope of SPEK training course on Hot Works, and editor of the magazine Požar).
- There are approx. 25 active members of SZPV providing lectures at conferences, seminars, workshops, training courses and other forms of education and training, organizes by SZPV.
- Supervisory Board supervises the work of Management board.
- Honorary Tribunal provides ethical support and decides regarding violations of the code of ethics, the statute and other acts of the Association.
A lot of work is done by members on voluntary basis, since there is no regular income by the state. SZPV started to work on European projects in 2017 with project FIRESKILLS (ERASMUS+ project with leading partner from Turkey, ended in 2019), and FIREEXPERT (Interreg Slovenia-Austria project with leading partner from Austria, ended in October 2020)
Two European projects are running at the moment: Inclusive Emergency (ERASMUS+ project with leading partner from Denmark, ending in May 2022) and Skilled to be a Fire Expert (ERASMUS+ project, ending in October 2022).
SZPV organizes different types of courses, seminars and other forms of education and training on the field of fire safety since 1995. Lecturers are from universities, institutions, companies, etc., which work on field of fire safety. Each of them is specialized for her/his own field of work.