On 4 March the Croatian Chamber of Trade and Crafts (HOK) organised the first conference on the construction sector in Croatia since the country entered the EU. Croatia is currently holding a lively debate on the implementation of EU legislation and SME representatives are looking forward to exchanging best practices with other European countries.
To this end EBC President Patrick Liébus presented government representatives and construction stakeholders with an overview of the construction sector in Europe.
A key topic was energy efficiency, which represents a main market driver for small construction firms and is a fundamental dossier for EBC. A way to boost energy efficiency in Europe is also a reduced VAT rate for labour intensive sectors, such as home renovation in France.
Vocational education and training was also discussed as a fundamental tool to fill the skill mismatch and access more innovative markets, such as the energy efficiency one.
Representing construction SMEs & craftsmen in Europe