About EIC
European International Contractors (EIC) has as its full members construction industry trade associations from fourteen European countries and represents the common interests of the European construction industry to the EU Institutions, to International Organisations and Multilateral Development Banks in all questions related to its international construction activities. In 2023, European contractors associated with EIC’s member federations generated a collective international turnover of US$ 265 billion, according to the ENR Statistics.
I. Organisation
European International Contractors (EIC) was founded in 1970 and is registered since 1984 as a legally independent business association under German law. Its full members are national construction federations from 14 European countries which have internationally active member firms as their members. At the end of September 2024, the composition of the EIC Board was as follows:
President: Benoît Chauvin (Colas, France)
Vice-President: Gustavo Martínez (Ferrovial, Spain)
Treasurer: Jesper Arkil (Arkil, Denmark)
Başar Arioğlu (Yapi Merkezi, Turkey)
Matteo d’Aloja (Ghella, Italy)
Philippe Dessoy (Besix, Belgium)
Juha Kostiainen (YIT Corporation, Finland)
Antonios Mitzalis (Avax, Greece)
Gonçalo Moura Martins (Mota-Engil, Portugal)
Erwin Scherer (Implenia, Switzerland)
Karl-Heinz Strauss (Porr, Austria)
Peter van der Linde (Royal Boskalis, The Netherlands)
Dyrik Wellershaus (Strabag International, Germany)
Piero Petrucco (FIEC President)
President Benoît Chauvin represents EIC as Vice-President on the FIEC Steering Committee.
II. Mission & Priorities
EIC’s mission is to promote fair international competition based on Quality-Based Procurement and fair international standard forms of contract, to advocate enhanced collaboration between the contracting parties in order to facilitate the delivery of low carbon and resource-efficient construction projects, and to provide a networking forum between the industry and interested stakeholders.
Between October 2023 and September 2024, EIC dealt with the following priorities.
1. EU Global Gateway
EIC President benoît chauvin ( Colas, right ) and Nicolas Erb ( Alstrom,left).
EIC Director Frank Kehlenbach (left) participates at the Meeting of the EU Global Gateway Business Advisory Transport subgroup hosted by DG INTPA in Brussels.
Being selected as Member of the Global Gateway Business Advisory Group (BAG) in September 2023, EIC President, Benoît Chauvin attended on 25-26 October 2023 the Global Gateway Forum, a high-level by-invitation only event in Brussels, which was opened by the President of the European Commission.
Throughout the year 2024, EIC participated in the meetings of the BAG Transport Subgroup hosted by DG INTPA and DG NEAR (of the European Commission), where EIC persistently recalled to the European Commission the lack of a level playing field for European contractors in civil works tenders financed by the Multilateral Development Banks, including ‘Team Europe’ financiers.
To restore the competitiveness of European international contractors in these types of projects, EIC advocated the introduction of Tied Aid arrangements for both consulting works and civil works, comparable to the practice of other OECD partners (e.g. the U.S., the UK and Japan), the elimination of government-owned enterprises from EU-financed civil works tenders (similar to the practice of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation), the admissibility of alternative bids and value engineering, and the change of the award practice from the lowest evaluated bid to the most economically advantageous tender.
2. EIC-EFCA Toolkit for Sustainable Infrastructure Procurement
An EIC-EFCA delegation presented the EIC-EFCA Toolkit on Sustainable Infrastructure Procurement to the European Investment Bank's Procurement Team in Luxemburg in January 2024.
EIC participated at the CICA mission to the World Bank and to the Inter-American Development Bank.
Following the launch of the EIC-EFCA Toolkit on Sustainable Infrastructure Procurementin August 2023, EIC presented its recommendations addressed towards the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), their Borrowers and individual Implementing Agencies and Contracting Authorities to incorporate quality, technical and sustainability (QTS) criteria in their large civil works tenders to most Heads of Procurement of the MDBs.
EIC met twice with the Heads of Procurement of the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank in the context of the CICA missions to Washington D.C. as well as with the Procurement Department of the African Development Bank during the CICA mission to Abidjan. In addition, EIC met with the Heads of Procurement of the EBRD in London and the EIB in Luxemburg.
In the course of these meetings, EIC advocated a step change rather than cosmetic changes in the use of rated criteria. All MDBs confirmed that the EIC recommendations are in principle suitable to promote Value for Money in MDB-financed civil works tenders and are compliant with the MDB Procurement Guidelines.
3. FIDIC Standard Forms of Contract
EIC contributes to the FIDIC’s International Contract Users’ Conference in November 2023 in London.
The Chairman of EIC’s Working Group ‘Contract Conditions’, Mathias Fabich, was invited to present at FIDIC’s International Contract Users’ Conference in November 2023 in London the EIC view on ‘Contracting and delivering megaprojects’. He informed the audience about the need for alternative procurement routes as recommended in the joint EIC-EFCA Toolkit on Sustainable Infrastructure Procurement to ensure better quality and sustainability on megaprojects.
In addition, Nabeel Khokhar, also Member of the EIC Working Group, informed the audience of international consulting engineers, lawyers and contractors about the EIC perspective on how the FIDIC standard forms of contracts have responded to current challenges facing the international contracting industry.
4. Collaborative Delivery Models
EIC Working Group Collaborative Delivery Models meeting in Brussels.
Members of the EIC Working Group on Collaborative Delivery Models (CDM) met three times in 2023 and 2024 with the task to develop an EIC Position on the subject.
The group was initiated by the EIC Board based on the recognition that the traditional standard forms of contract have shown their limitations, especially in terms of risk distribution and alignment of interests between the various parties involved. Collaborative delivery models, by contrast, foster a spirit of cooperation, mutual understanding, and shared objectives between the client and the contractor. The group succeeded in establishing a workable structure for the EIC Position and in establishing useful case studies. Its drafting work served as a basis for the EIC Workshop on 04 October 2024 in Copenhagen.
5. EU legislation on Supply Chain Responsibility
The Working Group Corporate Governance Due Diligence convenes federation and company experts from eight Member Federations and from FIEC.
EIC’s Working Group ‚Corporate Governance’, which convenes federation and company experts from eight Member Federations, met on various occasions to assess the legislative process concerning the new EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D). In late 2023 and early 2024, EIC and FIEC called in various Position Papers and Press Releases on the EU Council and the European Parliament to reject the result of the trilogue negotiations.
These lobbying activities were crowned with success to the extent that the final text of the Directive does no longer consider the construction sector as a ‘high risk sector’ and that the bar for applicability of the CS3D was raised to companies with 1,000 employees on average and with a net worldwide turnover of €450 million. In addition, there will be a 5-year transition phase until these companies fall under the Directive.
6. Carbon Neutrality Policy Manifesto
A graphic novel introduces to the FIEC-EIC-ENCORD Policy Manifesto on Achieving Carbon and Resource Neutrality in the European Construction Sector.
EIC coordinated together with FIEC and ENCORD the publication of a Policy Manifesto on ‘Achieving Carbon and Resource Neutrality in the European Construction Sector’ in December 2023. The document outlines a long-term vision and plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase resource efficiency.
The Manifesto advocates a shift from the linear to a Circular Business Model to drastically reduce waste production and raw material consumption, which requires overhauling and modernising the construction regulatory landscape. To help all stakeholders and business prepare for the needed changes, the Manifesto highlights ‘six strategic pillars’, discussed in detail by leading figures within the construction industry.
EIC discussed its findings with the European Commission during the ‘Connecting Europe Days’ in April 2024 and is pleased to learn that some of its recommendations have been taken up in a report on ‘Decarbonisation of the Transport Infrastructure Construction’ prepared for DG MOVE of the European Commission.
7. Blue Dot Network
CICA President and EIC Board Member Philippe Dessoy, EIC Board Member Başar Arıoğlu and EIC Director Frank Kehlenbach (from left to right) at the launch of the Blue Dot network at the OECD headquarters in Paris.
EIC was invited as a Member of the Executive Consultation Group (ECG) to witness the launch of the Blue Dot network Secretariat on 9th April 2024 at the OECD headquarters in Paris. The ECG actively contributed to the design of the Blue Dot network (BDN) and had convened since June 2021 executives and leaders across the global infrastructure sector, including financing institutions, developers, contractors, and civil society. EIC was represented in this group by its President Benoît Chauvin from Colas, two of its Board members and its Director.
8. FIEC-EIC Policy Manifesto
Ahead of the EU election 2024, FIEC President Philip Crampton and EIC Director Frank Kehlenbach (left) presented the FIEC-EIC Construction Manifesto for Action, guiding the future EU policy makers on their decisions affecting the European construction sector.
Together with FIEC EU President Philip Crampton, EIC Director Frank Kehlenbach presented on 17th April 2024 in Brussels the Key Messages of the joint FIEC-EIC Manifesto for the upcoming term 2024-2029. The FIEC-EIC Manifesto aims at guiding the future EU policy makers on their decisions affecting the European construction sector.
In the Manifesto’s chapter dedicated to the international competitiveness of European contractors, EIC and FIEC advocate linking the disbursement of EU funds under the new Ukraine Facility with a strict application of a ‘Buy European clause’ and tying EU funds in the context of the EU Global Gateway initiative to quality- and sustainability-based tender procedures. EIC and FIEC also promote a new Trade Defence Instrument for Construction Services in order to prevent unfair competition on public tenders in the Internal Market.
III. EIC Workshops
European international contractors contribute to the discussions at the EIC Autum Conference in Amsterdam, October 2023.
For the EIC Autumn Conference 2023, hosted by EIC´s Dutch Member Federation NBAU, Member Federations, European international contractors and EIC Associated Member companies met in Amsterdam to examine “The Global Energy Transition – What Role for European International Contractors?".
The Workshop’s thematic focus lay on Europe’s energy sovereignty in the changing global energy landscape and what role European international contractors are playing in implementing this aspirational infrastructure shift.
EIC Panel in Brussels on Business Opportunities for European Contractors in the Context of the EU Global Gateway.
Conference sum up with EIC President Chauvin (middle) and FIEC President Crampton (right).
The joint FIEC-EIC-Embuild Spring 2024 Conferencewith a Business Workshop on 'Building the Change: How can Construction help lead the way to 2050' took place on 17th May 2024 in Brussels, Belgium. The joint workshop was organised in view of the upcoming EU elections in June 2024, with the objective to inform the EU policymakers about the FIEC-EIC recommendations for the EU term 2024 – 2029.
The first session addressed the important question on how to ensure a competitive, resilient EU Single Market, the second session discussed business opportunities in the context of the EU Global Gateway. Around 150 Delegates and federation representatives as well as construction-related associated member companies from both FIEC and EIC, attended the conference and benefited from the unique industry networking forum.
III. EIC Workshops
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