Annual Congress of the European Builders Confederation

The 2016 annual congress of the European Builders Confederation (EBC) was hosted at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on 24 June. This year's congress focused on how to make sure small and medium-sized enterprises can tap into the potential of Building Information Modelling (BIM). It also presented recent developments and various projects linked to this innovative process including, training needs.

The President of the EESC, Georges Dassis, together with Patrick Liebus, member of Employers' group, in his opening address  noted that BIM data help transform the way buildings are designed making them efficient throughout their life cycle. In particular, small and medium enterprises are ubiquitous, essential and play a decisive role in terms of quality and expertise in job creation in the construction sector.

Concluding , Mr. Dassis pointed out that the construction industry and SMEs have a key role to play in the future of a competitive EU economy deploying  among other things,  new technologies to promote sustainable growth contributing to environmental protection, standardisation, training, job creation and  energy consumption control.