The European Organization for Quality was established in the middle of the last century. It's an autonomous, non-profit making, Brussels-based outfit comprising 34 national quality organisations in Europe, as well as institutions, companies and individuals from all over the world.
It describes itself as a "European interdisciplinary organisation striving for effective improvement in the sphere of quality management as the coordinating body and catalyst of its full member organisations".
You can read more at the EOQ's website and get access to a European Quality Charter, to a description of a harmonised scheme for the registration and certification of quality personnel, and to documents such as Towards a European Vision of Quality.
This latter document includes words like 'transcendental' and 'immanent' [sic] in the glossary and introduces the concept of a Quality Teddy Bear (yes, that's him below!). So we know the EOQ is working on quite a different plane to the rest of us!
What we haven't yet been able to figure out is how the EOQ connects to, and influences, realities such as the - let's say - less than perfect situation regarding ISO 9000.
Towards a European Vision of Quality (now in its second edition dated January 2001) points out the "serious limitations" of the ISO 9000 approach and the EOQ cites "a broad range of activities" stemming from its publication. But it's unclear how (or even if) the concepts in the document are to be implemented in practice.
We asked the EOQ to clarify this but the best their Communication Manager could do was to cut and paste the general blurb from their website. You can read this for yourself, and download all 100+ pages of the Vision here.
If any reader can give more insight as to the practical purpose of the EOQ (and how Teddy fits in the scheme of things), do let us know!