On 25 March 2025, EBC President Philip Van Nieuwenhuizen took the floor during the 5th Annual Plenary Meeting of the High-Level Construction Forum (HLCF) hosted by the European Commission’s DG GROW in Brussels.
The forum brought together key industry leaders, policymakers, and EU officials to reflect on strategic challenges and shape the future trajectory of the construction ecosystem. The agenda, structured around competitiveness, sustainability, and modernization, aligned with the EU Transition Pathway and the political priorities of the European Commission.
The opening session, “Towards a competitive, sustainable and productive construction ecosystem,” featured a keynote by Barbara Bonvissuto, Director for Construction, Machinery and Standardisation at DG GROW, followed by Matthew Baldwin, Head of the Housing Task Force at the European Commission. Then, insights from Román Arjona, Chief Economist at DG GROW, on current economic barriers limiting activity in the sector, including material shortages, weakened demand, labour gaps, and rising energy prices.
On this occasion, the Construction 2050 Alliance also released its manifesto 2025 “Building tomorrow’s Europe today”, an open request to EU institutions to set a strategic vision for a sustainable, competitive, and resilient European construction sector. The manifesto includes five strategic priorities: sustainability and net-zero targets, circularity, competitiveness, skills, and digitalisation. EBC is proud to be one of the initiators of the Alliance.
Representing both EBC and the Construction 2050 Alliance, Van Nieuwenhuizen conveyed messages on behalf of Europe’s construction micro and small enterprises, participating in a high-level panel discussion titled “Where Next for European Construction?”. During his panel, he stated: “Construction SMEs represent 94% of our sector and are fundamental to Europe’s job creation and competitiveness. To empower them, we urgently need a stable and predictable regulatory framework that allows them to invest in their skills, green and digital transitions. EU policymakers must ensure continuity with the previous mandate and simplify procedures that disproportionately burden small businesses.”
The EBC President also advocated for stronger implementation of policies that ensure a level playing field, particularly in public procurement. He encouraged reforms to make public tenders more accessible to SMEs, reducing administrative complexity and facilitating participation. As a representative of the Construction 2050 Alliance, Van Nieuwenhuizen also echoed the Alliance’s five strategic priorities, emphasising the sector’s essential role in meeting EU climate, competitiveness, and cohesion objectives.
A core issue addressed several times by the audience was the sector’s skilled labour shortage, with calls to make construction more appealing to young people and underrepresented groups, including women. In this context, fair competition was another focal point. EBC President insisted on the need to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach in the industrialisation of the sector, stressing that modular solutions and off-site construction do not currently meet the needs of the EU’s vast renovation market. He warned that turning the construction workforce into mere assemblers could further deter new talent from joining the sector.
The event concluded with three parallel workshops—focused on accelerating building permitting, improving the market for secondary materials, and facilitating cross-border services—offering participants to shape practical follow-up actions. The participation of the EBC President in the HLCF reaffirmed EBC’s commitment to advocating for the needs of small construction businesses, while aligning with broader EU ambitions for a sustainable, competitive, and inclusive construction ecosystem.
