The European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC), as a European sectoral organisation and an entity representing construction companies of all sizes, has asked the EU Commission to implement extraordinary measures aimed to reduce the effects of Covid-19 crisis.
At the beginning of the week, FIEC sent a statement with urgent measures for European Commission to consider Coronavirus a case of force majeure; to eliminate penalties for companies that have to suspend work; and to increase European funds to cover the increased costs of the work.
The state of economic emergency in most European countries has led this Sectoral Organisation to protect the construction industry, which represents 9% of the GDP of the EU-27 and employs 16 million workers, among other reasons. The application of Health & Safety and social isolation measures have affected construction works. In this sense, the sectoral companies will be affected by the cancellation and/or delay of their projects that will have a financial repercussions.
In order to mitigate the impact of this crisis and in a complementary way to the European Commission proposals, FIEC has recommended three urgent measures: publicly announce a case of “Force Majeure”; recommend that Member States allow the suspension or reduction of construction in progress, without penalties and taking into account the damages; and allocate specific resources when the project is co-financed by the European Union.
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