FIEC Newsletter – 31 Οκτωβρίου 2023

On 24 October, FIEC Director General, Domenico Campogrande, presented the Pact for Skills in Construction during a Webinar on the outcomes of the Blueprint for Skills and its link to the Pact for Skills in Construction. The Webinar was organised by the EU High-Level Construction Forum hosted by DG GROW of the European Commission.

Together with the European Builders Confederation (EBC) and the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (EFBWW), FIEC shared the state-of-play of the Pact, described the main challenges in its implementation and discussed next steps and perspectives.

Mr Campogrande reminded that the Pact for Skills is key for the implementation of the green transition as it addresses the issue of  “how to better anticipate market needs and make sure that the right skills are taken into account accordingly”.

On 25 October, Afonso Brito, FIEC Policy Officer for Economic & Legal Affairs, intervened as guest speaker at the “Off-Highway Conference 2023“, giving an overview on the construction activity in Europe.The one-day conference was organised by FIEC’s media partner KHL Group and was chaired by Chris Sleight.

During the conference, the participants offered a deep dive into the outlook for major construction equipment markets around the world, with a special focus on the markets and future demand for machines powered by alternative energy sources.

In his presentation, Mr Brito also showcased and commented on FIEC’s latest trends, data and figures of the construction market together with an overview on FIEC Statistical Report 2023.

On 24 October, FIEC published its Position Paper on the new Soil Monitoring Law proposal.FIEC strongly welcomes the proposal objective which is to monitor and improve the state of soils in the EU.

At the same time, with regard to the proposed “land take mitigation principles“, FIEC calls on legislators to take into account the economic and societal reality in Member States (housing crisis in several EU countries) and the need to build new homes and infrastructure.

In an accompanying Press Release, FIEC calls on EU institutions to thoroughly analyse all impacts of green legislation on construction activities, especially on new housebuilding.

The EU and its Member States “need to significantly step up implementation efforts” in order to keep on track towards its greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2030 and its climate neutrality objective for 2050, the European Commission said in its latest “State of the Energy Union” report, published on 24 October.According to the annual EU Climate Action Progress Report, published on the same day, emission reductions since 1990 were significant in the manufacturing and construction industry (including iron and steel, -48%), in the energy industry (-42%) and in the industrial processes and product use industries, whereas they have increased in the transport sector (+16%), especially in road transportation. Emissions from buildings, agriculture, small industry, waste and transport went down by 3% overall in 2021.

The report concludes that despite this progress and a  32,5% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in the EU since 1990, “the most significant cuts in emissions are needed in buildings and transport, where the pace of decarbonisation is sluggish or even moving in the opposite direction“.

To achieve the 55% emission reduction target for 2030, the EU should reduce buildings’ GHG emissions by 60%, their final energy consumption by 14% and energy consumption for heating and cooling by 18% until 2030: this is what the European Commission said following the publication of the report.

The 2nd edition of the international exhibition and conference ReBuild Ukraine will take place in Warsaw on 14-15 November.

The event program includes a Recovery Construction Forum that will bring together EU representatives, as well as those from national governments, including from Ukraine.

FIEC and its Ukrainian member federation, the Confederation of Builders of Ukraine (CBU), will play an important role in the forum. FIEC Honorary President, Kjetil Tonning, will moderate an open dialogue with Mustafa-Masi Nayem, Head of Ukraine’s State Agency for the Reconstruction and Infrastructure Development.

Tickets for ReBuild Ukraine 2023 are still available.

On 25 October, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) launched its new “Healthy Workplaces Campaign for 2023-2025” on “Safe and Healthy Work in the Digital Age” with EU Commissioner Nicolas Schmit and the Agency’s Director General, William Cockburn.

The digitalisation is a rapidly evolving phenomenon and brings new technologies in the workplaces, generating opportunities and challenges for companies and workers. With this campaign, the EU-OSHA will focus on five priorities: namely, digital platform work, automation of tasks, remote and hybrid work, worker management through AI and smart digital systems.

As a campaign partner, FIEC will actively participate in the promotion of the campaign.

On 23 and 24 October, the European Labour Agency (ELA) organised the second meeting of the Forum on the Posting of Workers, together with the European Commission.The invited speakers tackled the challenges of the implementation of the Directive provisions on posting via temporary work agencies (e.g., lack of data among other issues). The European Commission also reported on the progress of the work on the common e-declaration form for the posting of workers.

The Forum addressed the issue of social security coordination and the European Commission presented also the new Communication on digitalisation in social security coordination that was published in September. Some updates were delivered on the latest development of the European Social Security Pass. And finally, the effective cross-border enforcement of penalties and fines was discussed by the participants.