Νοέ292022

FIEC participates in EOTA Stakeholder Conference on revised CPR

On 23rd November, FIEC Director General, Domenico Campogrande, was invited to participate in a “High-level discussion panel on the CPR review” at the “EOTA 2022 Stakeholder Conference”, hosted by the European Organisation for Technical Assessment (EOTA) in Brussels.
The conference took place under the heading “The ETA route in the New CPR Framework” and gathered about 100 participants.
During the panel discussion – which was also attended by the Head of DG GROW’s Construction Unit, Ms. Katharina Knapton-Vierlich – FIEC made clear that it is has serious concerns regarding the Commission’s proposal for a revised Construction Products Regulation and that it welcomes the main elements of the draft report submitted  by MEP Christian Doleschal (EPP/Germany) to the Internal Market Committee of the European Parliament on 15th November.
“Overregulation can be counterproductive. Let’s focus on making the CPR a well-functioning tool for the Single Market and the industry“, said Domenico Campogrande when asked about FIEC’s priorities for the ongoing CPR review.The so-called ETA route (“European Technical Assessment”) provides an independent Europe-wide procedure for assessing the essential performance characteristics of non-standard construction products and offers manufacturers a voluntary route to CE marking under the existing Construction Products Regulation. The European Assessment Document (EAD) is developed by EOTA as a basis for issuing ETAs.

 

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Foreign Subsidies Regulation adopted

The Council has given its final approval to the “Foreign Subsidies” Regulation.The Regulations addresses possible distortions created by subsidies that are granted by non-EU countries to undertakings operating in the Internal Market. It lays down procedural rules for the investigation of these subsidies in the context of large concentration and bids in public procurement procedures that meet a specific (very high) threshold.

In doing so, the  Regulation aims to restore a level playing-field between all companies operating in the Internal Market and close a regulatory gap whereby subsidies granted by non-EU countries were not scrutinised under EU law.

The Regulation was already approved by the European Parliament earlier this month and will therefore now enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

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Digitalisation of Construction SMEs

The first digitalisation training for construction SMEs – addressed at setting-up a digital company culture and processes to support a digital transformation – has been completed. A short summary is available on the Commission’s dedicated website accessible via the “Read More” button below.Further sessions will be organised this Winter 2022-2023 and are announced in the training calendar on the Commission’s dedicated website.

 

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On 30th November, FIEC will take part in an online workshop on “Strengthening social protection for posted workers in times of emergency”. This workshop is organised by AEIP, the European Association of Paritarian Funds, in the framework of the EU-funded project EMEcs (European Market Environment in the Construction Sector).
The EMEcs project aims to understand how posted workers in the construction sector have been affected by the measures introduced by Member States to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, how pandemic related obstacles to posting can be overcome and how workers can be better protected in the future under similar circumstances.
Programme and registration are available here.