After a first phase, which was all about protecting the health and safety of workers, a new priority arises: economic recovery and a just and sustainable relaunch of our industries.
On 27 May the European Commission revealed its recovery strategy for the EU. The EFBWW sent out a press release saying that it welcomed the particular focus on the renovation of buildings. But the EU and European leaders need to be more ambitious.
The EFBWW demands a European wide infrastructure program to upgrade cities to smart cities and to connect major cities in Europe and create sustainable transportation hubs. This means new infrastructure, but also maintaining and updating existing infrastructure.
The recovery strategy will demand large scale funding. That is why the EFBWW is urging the Commission to be more transparent on how the “Renovation wave” and the other infrastructure projects will be financed. The EFBWW is also concerned about the announced conditionalities in the different funding programs. For the EFBWW the main conditionality must be social progress: investments leading to good and stable jobs.
EFBWW President, Johan Lindholm underlines the important positive impact of investments in the construction industry for jobs and for the economy: “The construction industry is a labour intensive industry and investments in construction have a multiplier effect because they create an extra demand for services and goods such as building materials. Large construction programs have always been part of successful strategies to get out of a recession”.
The EFBWW supports a European Green Deal towards a just transition (you can find the EFBWW position paper on the EGD here).
Tom Deleu, EFBWW general secretary says: “to realize a just transition it is crucial that trade unions are actively involved and that the sectoral social dialogue can play its role to guarantee that the transition will be social and sustainable”.
A just and sustainable recovery is now the first priority for the EFBWW and its affiliates.
Below you can find key EFBWW documents and links to the Commission proposals.
| COVID-19 motion EFBWW Executive Committee | download [EN] [FR] [DE] [IT] [NL] |
| 26 EFBWW demands | download [EN] [FR] [DE] [IT] [NL] |
| Letter to U. von der Leyen | download [EN] |
| Leaflets: No More Business as usual |
download English leaflets: [S&H] [Posting] [Economic recovery] download French leaflets: [S&H] [Posting] [Economic recovery] download German leaflets: [S&H] [Posting] [Economic recovery] download Italian leaflets: [S&H] [Posting] [Economic recovery] download Spanish leaflets: [S&H] [Posting] [Economic recovery] |
| E-mail banner: No more business as usual | download [EN] |
| Commission documents on the Recovery Strategy | download [EN] |
| EFBWW press release on the recovery strategy | download [EN] |
| Joint positions on COVID-19 with FIEC and the wood industry |
download Joint statement of the European social partners of the Construction industry download Joint statement of the European social partners of the Woodworking and Furniture Industries |
| Joint appeal with FIEC for a quick and sustainable recovery | download [EN] |
| Joint letter with Renovate Europe | download [EN] |
| European Green Deal paper | download [EN] |
With this webpage we also want to monitor all initiatives linked to the recovery strategy on European and national level.
Therefore, we request affiliates to share national recovery strategy plans and other national initiatives related to the economic relaunch below.
| Report by Jyrki Raina on short-time work systems and avoiding layoffs in six European countries. |
Download [EN] |
| Replies to the EFBWW survey “COVID-19 Disease and its impact in our countries/sectors” from the respective affiliates: | Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Spain. |