FIEC Newsletter – 17 Σεπτεμβρίου 2024

FIEC President, Piero Petrucco, intervened in the “European Roundtable on Climate Resilience” – hosted by the European Commission on 11 September – and concluded his statement and messages by remarking that “the construction industry plays a key role in the prevention and adaptation against the risks posed by climate change. FIEC voices a need for targeted approaches, clear coordination and complementarity among legislative instruments.”An “Excellent conversation with stakeholders on climate risk management. Lots of food for thought for the work on climate adaptation and hashtag preparedness in the next 5 years. The climate conditions will become ever harsher, but together we have a chance to do something about it.” – commented Wopke Hoekstra, EU Commissioner for Climate Action.

On 9 September, Mario Draghi published his report on the “Future of European Competitiveness“. The 400-page document recommends both sectoral and horizontal policies to ensure that the EU remains competitive with its main partners and competitors in the future.

The report argues that Europe faces a significant productivity and innovation challenge and needs to close the innovation gap with the US and China in key technologies. These include artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics.

Draghi also proposed a joint plan for decarbonisation and competitiveness. This should ensure that the EU’s ambitious decarbonisation agenda is supported by leadership in enabling technologies such as clean tech and electric vehicles.
The report also focused on reducing strategic dependencies on third countries, such as China, which can become economic and security vulnerabilities.

Finally, the report recognises that Europe faces the need for massive investment to meet the challenges of digitalisation, decarbonisation and defence, requiring levels of investment not seen for nearly half a century. The effective management of the challenges ahead will also be a matter of strengthening governance.

The European Commission and EU-OSHA, in cooperation with the European cross-industry social partners and national authorities, have launched a website on carcinogens at work.The website is an initiative from the Roadmap on Carcinogens. It aims to provide information on the risks of exposure to carcinogens by work or sector and to disseminate information on prevention strategies and risk management. The website also informs on the risks, exposure limits and possible measures for each carcinogen.

Eurofound, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, has published a report on company practices to tackle labour shortages. The report focuses on the recruitment and retention measures put in place by organisations of various sectors, but also looks at the impact of labour and skills shortages on companies. The report states that 80% of employers are experiencing difficulties in recruiting workers.In the construction industry, companies’ practices include better project planning “to avoid overlaps between projects”, recruitment of third countries nationals or the development of apprenticeships and partnerships with vocational educational training centres.