Kick-off meeting of the FIEC-EIC Task Force “Ukraine”
On 8th July, FIEC and EIC (European International Contractors) organised the kick-off meeting of their joint “Ukraine” Task Force, chaired by FIEC Honorary President Kjetil Tonning.
The aim of this Task Force will be to centralise and coordinate information and initiatives in view of the reconstruction of Ukraine once the war will be over.
Our Ukranian member federation CBU will be involved in the discussions, as well as local and national authorities. Further information will follow.
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European Labour Authority consults social partners of the construction industry
On 5th July, FIEC and the EFBWW participated in the first workshop organised by the European Labour Authority (ELA) dedicated to the construction sector.
European and national social partners provided input to the ELA on the state of play of the main trends in cross-border mobility in construction and on the related challenges in the sector.
“Fair mobility is a top priority, said FIEC Director General Domenico Campogrande. A good tripartite cooperation – involving social partners and the relevant authorities – is necessary to achieve it. We are looking forward to further work with the European Labour Authority on posting related issues.“
“We are witnessing worrying trends when it comes to the posting of workers and the abusive use of subcontracting. This is undermining trust of workers in the internal market. Together with the social partners we want to build a construction labour market based on quality and direct jobs!”, stressed EFBWW Secretary General Tom Deleu.
ELA will launch a campaign on the construction sector in 2023 and the European social partners are ready to support! Stay tuned!.
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FIEC and EIC publish joint position paper on proposal for “Due Diligence” Directive
On 8 July 2022, FIEC and EIC (European International Contractors) published a joint position paper on the European Commission’s proposal (from 23 February 2022) for a Directive on “Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence”.
FIEC and EIC call upon the EU legislator to limit corporate responsibility to companies’ own operations and direct business partners and to make compliance with the proposed Directive a precondition for participation in EU-financed tenders. This does not entail, however, creating additional obligations for small and medium-sized (SMEs) enterprises.
The effects on SMEs is of particular importance to FIEC. The low thresholds (Art. 2) and cascading effects of the due diligence and liability scheme are likely to put a disproportionately heavy administrative burden on the numerous SMEs active in the construction industry. For this reason, FIEC and EIC push for the employment threshold (Art. 2) to be aligned to those stipulated by existing national legislations on the same subject-matter, i.e., 1000 workers from 2024 onwards.
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SUSODCO project – final report available
The final report of the EU-funded project SUSODCO is now available!
Led by our Slovenian colleagues (CCBMIS), this project gathered social partners from several Central and Eastern European Countries – SI, HU, HR, BG, GR, CY, as well as the EFBWW – with the aim of building the capacity of their respective national social dialogue.
Watch out the project website!
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Commission identifies buildings and construction as “critical technologies” for the twin transition
On 29th June 2022, the Commission presented its “Strategic Foresight Report 2022 – Twinning the green and digital transitions in the new geopolitical context”. The report identifies ten key areas of action with the objective of maximising synergies and consistency between the EU’s climate and digital ambitions.
According to the Commission, energy, transport, industry, buildings, and agriculture are the most greenhouse gas emitting sectors in the EU. Reducing their footprint and strengthening their resilience is thus critical for a successful twinning. Demographic trends and urbanisation will drive changes in demand for buildings. Growing urban population will double the size of the global building stock by 2060. In the EU, the number of people living in predominantly urban and intermediate regions might reach 80% by 2050. These trends will intensify the energy consumption of buildings, the Commission says.
To achieve climate neutrality, new buildings will need to be zero-emission by 2030 and one fifth of the existing ones will need to be retrofitted.
“Smart buildings and meters could help achieve these goals and tackle energy poverty. By 2030, building information modelling could further increase the sector’s energy and water efficiency, providing long-term analysis of design choices in construction and use of buildings. Availability of anonymised data, smart appliances, as well as consumer behaviour will enable targeted investments in renovations. Digital logbooks and life-cycle analysis will be necessary to assess, report, store, and track information on whole-life emissions, and will help reduce the environmental impact of materials and help prevent the use of toxic ones”, the report reads.
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