Construction stakeholders believe that the Construction 2020 initiative should be reinforced in order to fully achieve its ambitions, aimed at supporting the construction sector’s adaptation to key emerging challenges and to promote the sustainable competitiveness of the sector, the European Council of Civil Engineers (ECCE) has said.
Major European construction representatives united
To this end, major European construction representatives have united, to stress their commitment to the extension of the existing programme in the form of the 'Construction 2050: Building tomorrow’s Europe today' initiative.
This comprehensive framework should be fully embraced by all actors in the construction ecosystem, member states and European institutions, the ECCE said.
Based on following principles:
1.) A specific targeted approach to construction because the sector is at the crossroads of different value chains and its unique nature requires a unique approach.
2.) An adaptable policy framework to address the evolving construction ecosystem and the transformation of the industry.
3.) A holistic approach towards policy making in order to implement coherent and balanced policies and legislation.
4.) A strong partnership between the European institutions, the member states and construction social partners and stakeholders to steer the transformation of the sector with the most adequate policies and tools.
In order to implement these principles, construction stakeholders have published a common vision for the future of the construction sector.
This vision identifies the main challenges for the construction sector and contains concrete proposals.
Aris Chatzidakis, ECCE president, said: “The construction sector needs to develop a new way to conceive more resilient structures, aiming to achieve a competitive sustainable building market.
"In order to obtain this European objective, a new design methodology is needed, focusing on a multi-performance and life-cycle oriented approach. Sustainable Structural Design (SSD) methodology addresses the possibility to include environmental aspects from the very beginning of the project.
'Structural upgrade considered jointly with functional and energy efficiency upgrade'
"Sustainability for existing buildings should include their structural safety and that means that when renovation projects of a certain scale are undertaken, structural upgrade should be considered jointly with functional and energy efficiency upgrade.”
By optimising the way construction works thanks to the development of a new inspiring and relevant policy framework, we will improve the lives of European citizens by providing higher value with fewer natural resources; and higher quality assets for owners and users, the ECCE said.
Construction is the solution industry. Addressing the challenges that the construction sector is facing means addressing the challenges of European citizens.
The sustainable Europe of tomorrow cannot be achieved without the construction sector. All the actors in the construction process must be involved for the European Union to respond to its main challenges: competitiveness, youth unemployment, digital economy, urban regeneration, energy efficiency and energy poverty, circular economy, affordable housing, climate change, mobility and connected infrastructure etc.
The construction sector is at the heart of our life: construction enterprises and their workers build the homes we live in, the roads on which we travel and the buildings we work or learn in, the organisation said.
European citizens spend more than 90 per cent of their time indoors, meaning that our health and wellbeing strongly depends on how our buildings are built, maintained and renovated.
It is within this context that construction stakeholders call upon the European Commission to strengthen the current construction policy setting by creating a new vision for the built environment: '
Construction 2050: Building tomorrow’s Europe today'.