FIEC Newsletter – 10 Μαρτίου 2026

Last week, the European Commission published its legislative proposal for an Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA). The file now enters the ordinary legislative procedure involving the European Parliament and Member States in the EU Council.

The initiative aims at strengthening the EU’s industrial leadership in strategic sectors and to accelerate investments in industrial decarbonisation through “low-carbon” and “Made in EU” provisions in public schemes and procurement to be applied to procedures launched from 2029 onwards.

FIEC welcomes the clear reference to existing product-specific legislation, such as the Construction Products Regulation (CPR), as well as clarifications aimed at strengthening “low-carbon” labels without adjusting them to recycled content.

On 2 March, the European Labour Authority (ELA) held its annual construction sector workshop, open to EU and national social partners in the construction industry.

On the programme, ELA reported about Concerted and Joint Inspections (CJIs) in the construction sector over the past year and several relevant ongoing activities, like a mapping on national subcontracting liability scheme and another study on labour intermediaries.

The construction sector is at the heart of ELA’s work and FIEC and its member federations are actively involved in those sectoral-related activities, for the sake of a fair labour mobility.

On 3 and 4 March, FIEC attended the European Employment and Social Rights Forum, organised by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion.

This annual event gathered representatives from European institutions, employers’ organisations, trade unions and civil societies. The conference opened with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, on the importance of having a strong economic foundation for a strong social Europe.

She identified three priorities:

Several priority topics for FIEC were also addressed during this conference such as job quality, fair labour mobility, the importance of Social Dialogue and the labour and skills shortages. Much is expected in the coming months and FIEC is ready to ensure that the proposed initiatives align with the priorities of the construction industry.

The European Employment and Social Rights Forum also provided an opportunity to shed light on the Pact for Skills with thematic sessions on upskilling and reskilling initiatives supported by the Pact. In the margin of the Forum, FIEC also attended the 16th Meeting of Large-scale Skills Partnership (LSP) and of the Regional Skills Partnerships Coordinators, as coordinator of the LSP for construction.

On 3 March, FIEC attended the final conference of the POSTING STAT 2.0 project. Led by HIVA – KU Leuven, this EU-funded project aims to complement the statistical information collected on intra-EU posting at European level by bringing together a research consortium from the main sending and receiving Member States of posted workers (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain).

The main goal is to increase the level of empirical evidence through the collection and analysis of national administrative data.

The final outcomes of the project clearly show that we need to collect more and better data on posting, to make sure that we understand better the EU labour market and its shortcomings. Indeed, having a clear picture of this phenomenon is necessary to find evidence-based policy solutions.

For the construction industry, where workers’ mobility is essential, good data comes through mandatory prior notification of posted construction workers for social security purposes, as well as an EU e-declaration scheme which respects Member States information requirements.

On 6 March, the European Commission launched a Consultation on measures to alleviate pressure on the housing market, as part of its future legislation on affordable housing, the “Affordable Housing Act”.

Stakeholders are invited to answer a questionnaire on areas under housing stress, short-term rentals and measures to accelerate housing supply by 29 March, as well as a broader Call for Evidence on the same topics by 3 April.

According to the consultation documents, the initiative aims to provide a clear and stable regulatory framework allowing public authorities to identify areas under housing stress. It will also include measures to protect and promote housing affordability in such areas, in particular through a legislative proposal on short-term rentals.

The “FIEC Annual Report 2025” language versions of the thematic factsheets and other initiatives are now translated into German, French, Italian, Spanish and available online on the report site itself.

You can easily navigate among those pages through the tab top-right (EN, DE, FR, ES, IT), and switch to your preferred language. FIEC thanks its French, German, Spanish and Italian member federations for their valuable contribution to the proofreading work.

“Building solutions together: Our mission, your future“.

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