Embuild
Embuild is the main business organisation, recognized employers’ organisation and representative body of the construction industry in Belgium.
ID: 67972672748-71
Lobbying Activity
Response to Construction services Act
12 Dec 2025
Le secteur de la construction est principalement constitué de petites et moyennes entreprises opérant à léchelle locale. Lactivité transfrontalière dans ce domaine présente des spécificités notables par rapport à dautres secteurs. Les principaux obstacles administratifs qui freinent le développement international ne résultent pas nécessairement des autorisations nationales, des exigences applicables aux chantiers ou des professions réglementées. Par exemple, les dispositifs de permis complexes et hétérogènes, tant entre États membres quau sein dun même pays, dissuadent les entreprises détendre leurs activités à dautres Etats membres. Les marchés publics constituent une part importante des opportunités pour les entreprises de construction ; toutefois, la divergence des exigences nationales, lexistence de préférences et la complexité des procédures de passation de marchés contribuent à décourager les soumissionnaires étrangers. Le respect des règles relatives au détachement des travailleurs reste également contraignant, en raison de la fragmentation des systèmes nationaux ; cela souligne la nécessité de mettre en place des outils didentification simplifiés, tels quune Banque Carrefour européenne de la sécurité sociale et une Banque Carrefour européenne des entreprises. Enfin, la diversité des normes techniques et des pratiques de construction oblige les entreprises à adapter leurs projets, à solliciter des experts locaux et à supporter des coûts supplémentaires, ce qui constitue souvent un frein à leur activité dans dautres États membres.
Read full responseResponse to European strategy for housing construction
17 Sept 2025
The supply of housing in Belgium is hindered by a complex set of economic, regulatory, and structural factors. In recent years, the sharp rise in material costs (+20% between 2021 and 2024) and wages (+9% in a single year), combined with the increase in mortgage rates (from 1% to nearly 4%), has significantly slowed new construction projects. Labor shortages remain a major bottleneck: more than 16,000 positions remain unfilled, and nine out of ten companies report recruitment difficulties, leading to delays in construction projects or even refusals to start new projects. Land scarcity and high prices, exacerbated by measures such as the Stop Beton policy, further reduce building opportunities. Administrative delays, particularly in obtaining building permits, worsen the situation: it takes an average of eighteen months to obtain a permit (excluding appeals), and fewer than 10,000 new housing units were authorized in the first quarter of 2025a sharp decline compared to the previous year. According to a study by the University of Leuven on the economic impact of the permit policy in Belgium, speeding up the processing of building permits for residential projects represents a significant financial gain. For a typical 20-unit housing project, each reduction in processing time translates into: (i) 6 months saved: a financial gain of 150,000 (ii) 12 months saved: a financial gain of 300,000 et (iii) 18 months saved: a financial gain of 500,000. Demographic pressures add to the challenge, with the average household size falling from 2.43 in 1995 to 2.25 in 2025, resulting in more households and therefore greater demand. The market alone cannot guarantee housing affordability or finance large-scale renovation. Public intervention has become essential. But budgets have been absorbed by successive crises, even as demand has soared. Needs for social housings far exceed available resources. While the European Union has allocated 52.8 billion through recovery plans, around 342 billion would be required to meet estimated needs. In Flanders alone, there were 176,000 applicants by the end of 2022. On this area, it is essential to develop new financing tools: combining public and private funding. Off-site construction opens up new prospects but faces barriers such as the absence of harmonized standards, limited ambition, and often ill-suited regulations. In the absence of EU-wide norms, companies are forced to rely on costly and time-consuming technical assessments. The benefits are substantial: faster construction, better cost control, consistent quality, waste reduction, and improved energy performance. In addition, this method significantly reduces the nuisances associated with traditional building sites in dense urban areas, making off-site construction a key lever to meet growing demand while respecting sustainability goals. Despite the progress driven by innovation, the construction sector still lags in adopting digital tools, barely 5% of Belgian firms actively recruit specialists in innovation. Finally, construction sites face additional costs linked to environmental requirements. European legislation is also somewhat complex, with frequent adjustments during new legislative sessions and sometimes modifications or deletions of existing measures. After an adjustment period of around four to five years, companies often have to deal with new legal requirements or revisions to the regulatory framework.
Read full responseMeeting with Pascal Arimont (Member of the European Parliament)
24 Jan 2025 · Memorandum européen
Meeting with Benoit Cassart (Member of the European Parliament)
20 Nov 2024 · Mieux construire ensemblepour un futur durable en Europe
Meeting with Tom Vandenkendelaere (Member of the European Parliament) and Boerenbond vzw and Land- en Tuinbouw Organisatie Nederland
30 May 2023 · Nature restoration law
Response to Initiative on EU taxonomy - environmental objective
2 May 2023
Embuils believes that taxonomy should not be a tool that imposes now a day tomorrow's requirements. In recent years, Belgium has made a lot of progress in the transition to a circular economy. It is one of the leading countries in this field. However, the criteria included in the delegated act for the transition to a circular economy are so high that they are, at present, unrealistic. Even in Belgium. In order to justify, without any ambiguity or interpretation on their part, the alignment of a project with the taxonomy, financial institutions rely on clarification on the procedures to follow. Currently, it is unclear how this information will be provided to financial institutions. In addition, tools to comply with these large-scale reporting requirements, as defined by the taxonomy regulations, are currently unproven. In a context where the consequences of the measures taken in the framework of Green Deal on prices are feared, it is essential to scrupulously monitor the financial impact of taxonomy on costs. Margins made by construction companies are already thin, and recurrent use of experts or auditing companies may reduce these margins even further. Furthermore, taxonomy must not undermine the accessibility of quality housing or infrastructure. Compliance with some of the criteria of the circular economy delegated act cannot be dictated by the revision of some legislative acts that are still under discussion between the EU institutions, in particular regarding product declarations (Construction Products Regulation) or energy performance of buildings. For example, the use of electronic tools for environmental declarations is far too premature. Indeed, at the moment the number of products for which information is available electronically is minimal. In the construction sector, use of materials, design of structures in which they are incorporated and the connection between materials and individual elements are extremely important aspects that make it very difficult to publish reliable information electronically. Some requirements are not linked to European legislation and have not been set in consultation with the sector. In order to ensure that the requirements are anchored in reality, it is essential that the actors involved in the taxonomy are convinced of the credibility of these requirements. For example, rather than the proportion of recycled materials, the life span of the building or infrastructure as a whole must be optimized. Environmental and technical requirements must support this objective. Furthermore, experts will have to be able to certify that the proportions of recycled materials imposed in the taxonomy are compatible with the best practices in terms of life cycle duration. It is necessary to ensure that environmental benefits from the use of secondary raw materials is not counterbalanced by a shorter life cycle. This would ultimately require more raw materials, whether primary or secondary. To reduce administrative burden on companies (in particular SMEs), it is necessary that national tools can be used to meet the different requirements set by the taxonomy. Especially since European tools such as Level(s) have not yet proved their worth, are not yet sufficiently known by construction and installation companies and suffer from several limitations at present (availability in all EU languages). Technical criteria for the taxonomy need to be developed in close collaboration with industry stakeholders, in particular with FIEC. The current members of the Platform for Sustainable Finance often do not have sufficient knowledge to understand the technical and economic reality of the construction and installation sector.
Read full responseMeeting with Pascal Arimont (Member of the European Parliament)
13 Jun 2022 · Presentation "Fit for 55" package
Response to Review of the Construction Products Regulation
8 Jun 2022
Au regard des éléments mentionnés ci-dessous, il est primordial que les demandes du secteur puissent être entendues et qu’un dialogue puisse être établi entre ses représentants et les institutions européennes. Ce dialogue doit se concentrer sur une simplification législative dans le but de ne pas démultiplier la charge administrative pesant sur les acteurs du secteur, mais également ne pas compromettre la synergie avec le reste du cadre législatif européen.
1. Alors que le secteur demandait une confirmation des exemptions de l’application du règlement aux produits de construction fabriqués sur le chantier en vue d’être immédiatement incorporés dans les ouvrages de construction, la Commission européenne souhaite que ceux-ci soient désormais soumis aux mêmes règles que les autres produits de construction (considérant 10). Les (parties de) travaux de construction ne traversent pas les frontières. Le marquage CE n’a aucune raison d’être dans ce cas et représente, en conséquence, uniquement une charge supplémentaire. La Commission mentionne sa volonté de combler certaines lacunes réglementaires (considérant 10). Néanmoins, les différentes réglementations nationales qui régissent les travaux de construction, ainsi que les cahiers de charge des travaux se réfèrent aux normes européennes transposées. Les règles techniques sont donc identiques et l’argument de la lacune règlementaire n’est, en conséquence, pas fondé.
2. La charge administrative à laquelle les entrepreneurs devront faire face sera amplifiée par la multiplication des obligations de déclarations.
3. La multiplication des pouvoirs de la Commission européenne et des domaines couverts par des actes délégués et d’actes d’implémentation risquent d’omettre la prise en considération des besoins du secteur puisque ces procédures législatives ne permettent pas de prendre suffisamment en compte l’opinion des parties intéressées.
4. La proposition de révision du règlement sur les produits de construction n’est pas suffisamment en ligne avec les objectifs en matière d’économie circulaire et les exigences en matière de performance énergétique des bâtiments. A titre d’exemple, la directive sur la performance énergétique des bâtiments exige le calcul du potentiel de réchauffement planétaire pour les bâtiments neufs à partir de 2030 (COM(2021) 802, article 7). Cependant, l’entrepreneur risque de ne pas pouvoir réaliser ce calcul de manière rigoureuse dans la mesure où il n’aura accès qu’aux informations stockées dans la base de données qui le concernent spécifiquement (article 78). De manière similaire, la volonté de la Commission européenne d’augmenter la réutilisation et le recyclage des déchets de construction risque d’être mise à mal par la charge administrative relative aux déclarations de performance pour les produits usagés, remanufacturés ou excédentaires (article 12).
Read full responseMeeting with Tom Vandenkendelaere (Member of the European Parliament)
9 Dec 2021 · Fit for 55 legislative package
Response to Commission Communication – "Renovation wave" initiative for the building sector
8 Jun 2020
The Construction Confederation welcomes the "renovation wave" initiative. Please find our comments in attachment.
Read full response