European International Contractors (EIC) has as its full members construction industry trade associations from 15 European countries and represents the interests of the European construction industry to EU policymakers, international organisations and Multilateral Development Banks in all questions related to its international construction activities. In 2022, European contractors associated with EIC’s member federations generated a collective global turnover of US $ 215 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 construction federations from 15 European countries which have internationally active member firms as their members. At the end of October 2023, 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)
Nils Bjelm (NCC, Sweden)
Matteo d’Aloja (Ghella, Italy)
Niels de Bruijn (van Oord, The Netherlands)
Philippe Dessoy (Besix, Belgium)
Juha Kostiainen (YIT Corporation, Finland)
Zoe Lisaridou (Avax Group, Greece)
Manuel Mota (Mota-Engil, Portugal)
Erwin Scherer (Implenia, Switzerland)
Karl-Heinz Strauss (Porr, Austria)
Dyrik Wellershaus (Strabag International, Germany)
Philip Crampton (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 November 2022 and October 2023, EIC dealt with the following priorities:
1. EU Global Gateway
Following a competitive selection process, EIC President, Benoît Chauvin, was invited in September 2023 to join the Global Gateway Business Advisory Group (BAG). This group of high-level executives has the mandate to assist the European Commission in promoting cooperation with the European private sector to boost the impact of investments under the Global Gateway strategy in five key sectors, including the transport sector. Under the auspices of the President of the EU Commission, the EIC President presented the recommendations for a better collaboration between European international contractors and the EU Commission as well as ‘Team Europe’ development financiers during the Global Gateway Forum held on 25-26 October 2023 in Brussels.
In this context, EIC highlighted the recommendations of the Final Study Report on EU Strategy on Export Credits, to which EIC experts had contributed over the year 2022, and addressed to the BAG.
EIC takes part in the first EU Global Gateway Business Advisory Group Meeting, October 2023
2. EIC-EFCA Toolkit for Sustainable Infrastructure Procurement
In the light of the World Bank’s policy shift to use Rated Criteria valid as of September 2023, EIC developed in collaboration with the European Federation of Engineering Consultancy Associations (EFCA) a step-by-step guide to incorporate quality and sustainability criteria in MDB-financed tenders for large civil works. The Toolkit for Sustainable Infrastructure Procurement was launched in August 2023 and EIC took the opportunity to introduce the guidance document in September
2023 to the audience of the FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference in Singapore and during the Meeting of the Heads of Procurement of the Multilateral Development Banks in Manila. The initial feedback from FIDIC and from several major Multilateral Development Banks was positive and the dialogue will be continued.
Frank Kehlenbach at the FIDIC Global Infrastructure Conference in Singapore, September 2023
3. FIDIC Standard Forms of Contract
In July 2023, EIC published a new ‘EIC Contractor’s Guide to the FIDIC Conditions of Contract for Construction’ (2nd Edition 2017, Reprint 2022)’ to voice EIC’s observations on the improvements and retrogressions of the second edition of the FIDIC ‘Red Book’. This EIC ‘Red Book’ Guide is highly topical, as the EIC Working Group ‘Contract Conditions’ also commented on the so-called ‘FIDIC Reprints 2022’ which comprise the combined amendments to the FIDIC suite of standard forms arising from three set of errata and amendments published between December 2018 and November 2022, which became effective as of January 2023.
4. Fair Competition
Following the start of application of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation in July 2023, EIC submitted together with FIEC and the European Dredging Association (EuDA) a joint dossier to the European Commission to advocate an in-depth market investigation into the construction sector, including dredging activities, in accordance with Article 36 of the Regulation. In the dossier, compiled over the year 2022, the three federations have drawn the attention of the European Commission to the fact that the European construction industry experiences an increasingly unfair competition from third country state-owned enterprises in public procurement procedures within the Internal Market.
5. EU legislation on Supply Chain Responsibility
Following the adoption of the EU Council’s General Approach on the proposed Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and the corresponding Draft Report of the European Parliament’s JURI Committee, EIC scrutinised the 1,500 plus proposals for amendments and formulated its ‘Top 10 Messages’ which were put forward together with FIEC for the negotiations in the European Parliament. On this basis, FIEC and EIC adopted a joint position with Proposals for Amendment of the JURI Report on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence for the plenary vote of the European Parliament on 31st May 2023. Currently, EIC closely monitors the trilogue of the EU legislators on the topic and insists on its key messages.
6. Ukraine Reconstruction
In collaboration with CICA and FIEC, EIC published in April 2023 a set of key recommendations in which the three federations call on the international donor community to create attractive financial and legal framework conditions for the future reconstruction of Ukraine. Following the proposal for a Ukraine Facility, in which the European Commission has suggested supporting Ukraine with EUR 50 billion over the 2024-2027 period, EIC cross-checked the te3chnical details of the proposed Regulation against the earlier set of general recommendations. In its contacts with DG NEAR of the European Commission, FIEC and EIC asked for tying eligibility under the Ukraine Facility to companies established in EU Member States, in the EU Neighbourhood or to countries for which reciprocal access has been established by the EU Commission. Furthermore, FIEC and EIC called for the application of the ‘Practical Guide on Contract Procedures for EU External Action’ (PRAG) and for clarification that e-procurement systems, specifically the system of ‘reversed auctions’, are not suitable for procurement of infrastructure works. FIEC and EIC communicated their position in an EU online survey and to the Director-General of DG NEAR.
7. Carbon Neutrality Policy Manifesto
EIC finalised in October 2023 the drafting work for the upcoming Carbon Neutrality Policy Manifesto which will present an Action Plan for a strategy shift to enable the construction industry to become a resource-efficient and low carbon sector by the year 2050. The Policy Manifesto will advocate a transition to an integrated circular business model across the lifecycle of the build environment. To achieve this goal, the construction ecosystem must move forward from a fragmented industry to one based on better collaboration and data management. Experts from EIC member companies developed six respective strategic actions. EIC contributed with its findings to an Industry Working Group on Decarbonisation convened by the European Commission’s DG MOVE and which was launched in October 2023.
To learn more about the EIC timeline and milestones, please visit our website
https://www.eic-federation.eu/federation/history.
III. EIC Workshops
EIC and its German Member Federation, BAUINDUSTRIE, organised the EIC Spring 2023 Conference on 28 April 2023 with a Business Workshop on 'Infrastructure Development in the Gulf Region'. MEP Reinhard Bütikofer (The Greens/EFA), Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, opened the Workshop attended by one hundred participants from twenty countries with a foreign policy keynote speech. Government representatives from Saudi Arabia and from Qatar familiarised European international contractors with the construction pipeline in their region. The second part of the EIC Workshop examined the latest experiences with respect to financing models and the delivery of construction projects in the Gulf Region.
EIC President, Benoît Chauvin, and MEP Reinhard Bütikofer (The Greens/EFA) in Wiesbaden
EIC’s Autumn 2023 Conference was hosted by the Dutch Member Federation, NABU, on 06 October 2023 in Amsterdam where the Business Workshop on ‘The Global Energy Transition' attracted around 80 participants from 18 countries
Key-note speakers from the contracting and the consulting industry discussed Europe’s energy sovereignty in a changing global energy landscape and associated challenges and business opportunities for European international contractors. Panellists agreed on the urgent need to create a win-win-win scenario between public clients, the financial industry, and the real economy which rewards contractors and suppliers adequately for the implementation of the energy transition.
A ‘New Deal’ between public and private sector is required, including a more efficient collaboration inside and outside the supply chain.
Delegates at the EIC Conference Amsterdam, 2023
IV. Stay in contact with EIC!
To learn more about our activities, conferences and members, please visit our website and follow our posts on LinkedIn.