FIEC Vice-President speaks at European Parliament seminar on “Building Europe – future of work in construction”
Amongst others, Depreter insisted on better consideration of “green” and “digital” developments when training or up-skilling construction workers, as it requires new skills.
He also insisted on the need to have a coherent EU legislative framework to ensure fair mobility of the workforce and fair competition between companies in the internal market.
The seminar was organised by FIEC member federation Sveriges Byggindustrier and hosted by MEP Abir Al-Sahlani (Renew Europe).
| READ MORE |
European Commission’s Autumn Economic Forecast
Facing a challenging external environment, economic growth in the EU will be supported by domestic factors mostly. According to the European Commission, the construction sector will remain growth supportive for the time being. As a result of historically low borrowing costs triggering house purchases, public infrastructure projects and supporting schemes, such as InvestEU. However, in the third quarter of 2019, the Commission’s Construction Confidence Indicator fell to its lowest level since December 2017. Construction investment has remained flat and is expected to slow down. Further expansion will strongly be affected by skilled labour shortages.
| READ MORE |
Latest evaluation of the Construction Products Regulation
The European Commission has released a Staff Working Document on the latest evaluation of the Construction Products Regulation (CPR). This follows an external study that was carried out in 2018. One conclusion that is different from previous reports is that cross-border trade has increased in construction products. Although the report does not identify a clear cause and effect relationship, it says that the CPR has contributed to this increase. Unsurprisingly, the report cites the continued use of national marks and certification as an obstacle to the smooth functioning of the internal market and goes on to criticise the standardisation process, which it says is hampering internal coherence. The full report can be accessed below.
| READ MORE |
New President and Secretary General at the EFBWW
During its congress on 7th November in Vienna, our Social Partner EFBWW (European Federation of Building and Wood Workers) elected a new President, Johan Lindholm from Sweden, and a new Secretary-General, Tom Deleu from Belgium, for a 4-years mandate. Within the new structure, Gunde Odgaard from Denmark has been re-appointed as responsible for the Building sector.
FIEC wishes all the best to the newly elected team and is committed to continuing the constructive cooperation for strengthening further our EU sectoral Social Dialogue.