EU Commission holds webinar on the digital transition of construction

On 25 April, the European Commission held a webinar on the “Initiatives supporting the digital transition of construction“.

Among other things, the Commission’s Directorate General for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) delivered some updated on several actions supporting the development and implementation of digital building logbooks.

The aim of these actions is to propose a model that contributes to a certain degree of harmonisation of digital building logbooks initiatives that exist at national level and to get access to better data of the whole building stock, which in turn will lead to better policies.

The research and consulting company Ecorys presented the “lessons learnt” and the main take-aways deriving from the project “Supporting digitalisation of construction SMEs“.

Industry Committee adopts opinion on new rules for construction products

On 25 April, the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) adopted the draft opinion by Rapporteur Pascal Arimont (EPP/Belgium) with 49 votes in favour and 19 abstentions.The opinion will now be forwarded to the responsible Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) and to Rapporteur Christian Doleschal (EPP/Germany), to put it to vote at the end of May.

Visit in Brussels of FIEC’s Finnish member federation

Headed by CEO Aleksi Randell, on 26 April, a delegation of representatives from FIEC’s Finnish member federation Rakennusteollisuus (RT, the Confederation of Finnish Construction Industries) paid a visit to FIEC offices in Brussels.

The exchange with FIEC was a useful moment to go through the main ongoing priorities of the EU construction ecosystem, namely focused on the Transition Pathways, the revision of the Construction Products Regulation (CPR), the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), Standardisation, Asbestos, Forest based industries, the New European Bauhaus (NEB), the Taxonomy on sustainable finance and the reconstruction process in Ukraine.

An opportunity was also seized to take vis-a-vis meetings with officials of the EU institutions (European Commission and European Parliament).

EU-Norway Green Alliance announced

On 24 April, the European Commission and Norway established a Green Alliance to strengthen their joint climate action, environmental protection efforts, and cooperation on the industrial transition.

The Green Alliance between Norway and the EU will focus, for example, on further enhancing industrial cooperation through strategic partnerships, such as a future Strategic Partnership on Sustainable Raw Materials, or on working together to promote sustainable finance and investments.

Green Alliance is the most comprehensive form of bilateral engagement established under the European Green Deal.

 

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FELM project final conference and project outcomes

 

FIEC and EFBWW held a final conference in Vienna on April 25th of the EU funded project “The Future of the European Labour Market in Construction” (FELM). The project produced six cases studies to assess the effect of the increased number of third country national (TCN) companies and workers in the EU labour market of the construction industry.

The conference included a presentation about the results of the legal, quantitative analysis carried out in the project and the main conclusions of the case studies as well as two panel discussions – one focusing on the competition from non-EU companies and the second one on the presence of TCN workers in the EU construction sector. The event was concluded with a reaction and perspective by Cosmin Boiangiu, Executive Director of the European Labour Authority.

Based on the project findings, FIEC and EFBWW developed a list of Joint Recommendations to address the challenges and opportunities presented by the presence of non-EU workers and companies in the European construction sector.
These recommendations aim to promote a fair and sustainable labour market while ensuring compliance with existing legal framework and increasing social cohesion.

The FELM project deliverables and the Joint Recommendations can be found at this link on the FIEC Website.

European Labour Authority addresses social ID cards to tackle undeclared work

On 26 April, the construction EU Social Partners FIEC and EFBWW, co-chaired a meeting of the Undeclared Work Platform of ELA (European Labour Authority) dedicated to the role played by social ID cards in construction and other sectors as tools to fight against undeclared work.Around 50 national representatives and Social Partners exchanged views about the advantages and challenges of the different existing national schemes, as well as those currently under development. A special focus was given to the efficiency of such cards in reducing frauds and making it easier for labour inspectors to do their tasks.

The European Commission also presented the various ongoing projects. Among the most successful one is ESSPASS, which aims at developing digital solutions in the framework of cross-border social security.

FIEC and EFBWW look forward to further cooperating with the ELA and the European Commission in the framework of their new EU Social Dialogue project on social ID cards in construction, which – amongst others – will address the feasibility of interconnecting the national schemes.

 

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