Sustainable and competitive construction sector report published

A final Commission report on the Sustainable Competitiveness of the Construction Sector has been published. According to the report, the financial crisis in 2007 had a significant impact on activities in on-site construction, with the most affected countries being the ones that had experienced the highest growth rates up to 2007. The market for buildings suffered more than the market for civil engineering.

Regarding environmental performance, the sector is characterszed by the generation of large amounts of non-recyclable waste. Even if efforts have been made during the last 10 years, it will take time to see their impact, says the study.

The study also found that the European construction sector is subject to various costly regulatory requirements. The different levels of national implementation of EU regulations and the lack of harmonisation of standards are seen as barriers to realising the internal market.

The report identified the following challenges:

• Poor innovation performance in the sector
• Poor productivity levels
• Narrow skill sets
• General macroeconomic environment (severe drops in demand)
• Demographic change (ageing of societies)
• Labour market conditions
• Major drivers of structural change (global challenges that can become enablers of sustainable growth)
• Demands for convenience from customers
• Weak growth prospects in EU markets
• Fragmented industry structures with only very few large construction companies
• Growing international (global) competition
• Access to finance is getting difficult following delayed payments by clients, ineffective financial management and limited profitability.

The report also presented a short-term vision (by 2020) for the future European construction sector, which included pushing forward new and innovative solutions to meet the demands associated with global challenges. These solutions include being instrumental in the EU reaching its 2050 targets for energy efficiency in buildings; reaching or going beyond the 70% target for waste recycling; meeting the requirements for quality of inner climate in buildings and being an attractive partner to clients in existing and emerging growth markets.

The report also proposes the creation of a Task Force to coordinate and monitor the construction specific European policy initiatives; a horizontal Commission services coordination group to identify synergies and monitor impacts and effects of different Commission services’ initiatives and country peer learning or cluster networks of Member States that share a focus on specific priorities or problems within the strategy.

In the autumn of 2011, the European Commission will submit a communication for the sustainable competitiveness of the construction sector.

The report can be found here: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/construction/competitiveness/sustainable-competitiveness_en.htm