Europe is finally waking up to the long-known, but little tackled problem of our lack of competition. Fragmentation and other drawbacks of the Single Market have been acknowledged in reports, such as those by Letta and Draghi and the 2024 Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Report.

It is against this backdrop that European Commission (EC) President von der Leyen tasked Vice-President S茅journ茅 with developing a Single Market Strategy for the new and rapidly evolving circumstances we face.

Work has recently started on this Strategy that will encompass, among other aspects, an action plan with initiatives that the Commission intends to put forward over the coming years to fully exploit the potential of the single market and boost Europe鈥檚 productivity. EFCA will closely following the entire process and in this month鈥檚 column we highlight several important aspects that should be included in the document and its subsequent implementation.

Technical aspects

Standardisation is a key instrument, albeit sometimes overlooked, to improve the Single Market. Following the recent publication of the Construction Products Regulation (CPR), literally hundreds of standards in the construction sector and from connected sectors will need to be either updated or created over the next few years.

This huge task will impact not just legislation and technical aspects, but also the quality of everyday life of all EU citizens. It is both an opportunity and a necessity for the engineering sector to be better represented and its proposals better taken into consideration at the EU institutions and CEN-CENELEC levels.

The topic of circular economy is very broad, and certainly important for the constructions sector. Moreover, the circularity and climate change targets are linked and sometimes even overlap. On these matters, the engineering sector advocates for the inclusion and wide application of the Whole Life Carbon (WLC) approach.

Its scope needs to be widened, from the current limited focus on operational impact in the use phase, to the inclusion of embodied carbon in all aspects. This is also essential in reducing the carbon footprint of the built environment, thus addressing both circularity and climate change.

WLC is a broad topic that can support and complement the implementation of major EU legislation such as the CPR, the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and the Taxonomy.

Sustainable procurement

A better legal framework for public procurement is certainly one of the main routes to improve the Single Market. While this critical topic will be addressed by EFCA separately in the coming period, we can already say that we support policy and legislative changes that will ensure the wide application of sustainable-based procurement, especially in the case of infrastructure.

This will also contribute to the climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, and in timely completion of Trans European Network (TEN) infrastructure. EFCA has already worked on sustainability aspects in procurement, and readers can consult the EFCA-EIC Toolkit for the Procurement of Sustainable Infrastructure, which is published on our website.

A future-oriented approach

Digitalisation has long been seen by the sector as an important enabler of the Single Market, and we are pushing for its acceleration and use, for example, a more extensive use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) systems. However, the increased digitalisation of the administrative and legal aspects in the construction sector are also absolutely necessary, including for various types of permits and other documentation. All these changes can significantly reduce times and contribute to higher quality administration and construction works, as well as cost savings.

It is beyond doubt that the Single Market has already achieved a lot of success in terms of educational and professional recognition at the EU level, including in the case of regulated professions.

While some issues may remain to be addressed, our sector believes that it is more important to shift the attention to the new challenges posed by market and technological evolutions, such as aligning the various developments and initiatives among themselves. As a concrete example in this case, EFCA advocates that the New European Bauhaus (NEB) Academies should have a greater focus on engineering.

Furthermore, there is a general need for more and better training on IT skills in general and on data engineering in particular, and this should be done in partnership with relevant industry professionals.

Finally, EFCA welcomes and supports Mr. S茅journ茅鈥檚 commitment during his hearing to improve the legislative framework for SMEs, especially since most EU engineering companies fall within this category. Reducing the administrative (and thus financial) burden for SMEs vital, through measures such as increased digitalisation or the aim to have a single, harmonised set of documents, permits, approvals, etc. that should be adopted by all Member States.

All these are de facto barriers for SMEs to work freely across the EU and their removal should be prioritised, especially since some national markets are harder to access than others for the engineers. In the end, policies and legislation related to the Single Market are critical in improving the situation of all EU companies, and we hope to see these aspects addressed by Mr. S茅journ茅 and the new Commission.