FIEC Newsletter – 8 Νοεμβρίου 2022

On Thursday 3rd November, FIEC participated in the Annual Symposium on the Construction Products Regulation (CPR) hosted by the German Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building in Berlin.Speakers included the European Commission’s new head of the Construction Unit, Ms. Katharina Knapton-Vierlich, representatives from the Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building, as well as officials from the Czech (current EU Council Presidency) and Swedish (next presidency) governments.

In addition, the event gathered representatives from the industry (e.g., FIEC member, Zentralverband des Deutschen Baugewerbes) and from the academic sphere.

Overall, the speakers and participants agreed that the proposal for a revised CPR is complex and that a major overhaul is needed. The Czech Presidency announced it would present a first compromise proposal on some aspects of the CPR on 7th November.

The last General Assembly of the project funded under Horizon 2020 programme, BIM-SPEED, took place in Berlin on 26-28th October at the premises of the Technical University of Berlin. It was the last opportunity for all the consortium partners to meet and review the project achievements aiming at enabling all the stakeholders in the construction sector to adopt BIM (Building Information Modelling) and therby reducing the time of deep renovation projects by at least 30%.

The next challenge for the project partners will be to promote and disseminate the key results, tools and techniques to to all the relevant stakeholders.

On Friday 18th November, our French member federation FFB will organise its thematic building fair entitled the “24 Heures du Batiment“, which will take place at the Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles.
Several events are planned, spanning from conferences to workshops, two plenaries with key speakers and experts, a space dedicated to cybersecurity, a start-up corner and a recruitment-training area, not to mention a concert to be held in the evening by Jean-Louis Aubert.
More than 5.000 participants and 50 exhibitors are expected.Sign up to register and follow the event at this link:

On Tuesday 25th October, the Council of Ministers adopted its “general approach” on the proposal for a recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD).The Council’s position contains some positive elements, but overall it only partially reflects FIEC’s expectations.

While the Council decided not to extend the scope of the Directive to the point that it would become a “catch-all” instrument, including, for example, provisions on the mandatory use of certain construction materials, FIEC regrets that the Council failed to set clearer benchmarks on the minimum energy performance standards (MEPS).

FIEC considers that the MEPS should be kept as the essential regulatory tool to trigger renovations of existing buildings on a large scale, in line with the Renovation Wave targets.

At their last Social Dialogue meeting dedicated to health and safety, FIEC and the EFBWW (European Federation of Building and Woodworkers) adopted a joint declaration on the EU Strategy Framework on Health and Safety at Work for the period 2021-2027.

In their joint declaration, FIEC and EFBWW recognise the important role played by the EU legislation in the field of occupational health and safety, provided that it is based on sound scientific evidence and properly implemented and enforced at national level. They also emphasise the specificities of the construction sector in this field: often physical tasks with ergonomics issues; the ageing of the workforce, a working environment where hazardous substances can be present; etc. They acknowledge the opportunities that the green and digital transitions can bring in this field.

Also, both social partners aim at further decreasing the number of fatal and non-fatal accidents in the sector and further increasing the overall health and safety of the workforce. For that purpose, they insist that it is important to collect reliable and comparable data at the EU level.

In the framework of the High Level Construction Forum, DG GROW is organising a Workshop on the screening of Asbestos in buildings. The session will be be held on Tuesday 15th November, from 14.00 to 16.30.The European Commission intends to present a legislative proposal on the mandatory screening and registration of asbestos in buildings in the course of 2023 and this workshop is part of its preparatory work.

On 19th October, the Recovery Forum Ukraine 2022 was held in Kyiv. Organised by our Ukrainian member, the Confederation of Builders of Ukraine (CBU) the initiative gathered more than 300 present and 100 online participants, despite the known difficult situation in the country.

FIEC President, Philip Crampton, who took part in the event, indicated that «FIEC and all its member federations reiterate their message which is strongly condemning the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russia» and presented the work done so far by the FIEC/EIC Task Force “Ukraine”.

The purpose of the forum was to consolidate the mechanisms and exchange information to accelerate the financing of the reconstruction needs of the infrastructure of the community destroyed as a result of hostilities. Communities from different parts of the world, international financial organisations and potential investors were also involved in the event.