German optometrist Dr Wolfgang Cagnolati has been elected as the president of the European Council of Optometry and Optics (ECOO).
He takes over from Dr Feike Grit of the Netherlands. Dr Cagnolati was unanimously voted into the position at the European optical body's recent general assembly meeting in Istanbul.
According to an ECOO statement, Dr Cagnolati has been a leading member of the profession in Germany and has been active for many years not only at a European but also a world level, participating in the work of the American Academy of Optometry and the World Council of Optometry.
Armin Duddek, a practising optometrist from Switzerland, was elected vice-president at the meeting. Jesus Garcia of the Spanish College of Optician-Optometrists was re-elected ECOO treasurer.
ECOO also announced that it had reached an advanced stage in its plan to launch a European Academy of Optometry and Optics, which will have its inaugural meeting May 16 2009 in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The optical body added that it had appointed the College of Optometrists to provide the secretariat of the European Academy.