Music from Brussels

At the end of May, the citizens of the European Union (EU) elected a new Parliament. Voter turnout could have been higher. For all the criticism of and sullenness over Europe, it at least reached the same level as the election five years ago. It appears that the general public is only gradually beginning to realize how great the impact of Brussels politics is already today on co-existence in the individual states of the EU.

The representatives of the European construction industry have progressed a step further. Of necessity: especially in the recent past they had to concern themselves intensively with directives, Eurocodes, and the Construction Products Regulation (CPR).

It is a coincidence that the election of the new President of the Federation for the European Precast Concrete Industry (BIBM) took place at the same time as election of the EU Parliament. It is no coincidence, however, that the national associations are increasingly seeking  a closer alliance with the representatives of the various construction segments in Brussels and that they want to represent jointly their industrial interests vis-à-vis European politics. One example of this is the coalition of individual regional interests into national groups within BIBM, one example of which is the concrete image campaign “The Concrete Initiative” (//www.theconcreteinitiative.eu" target="_blank" >www.theconcreteinitiative.eu:www.theconcreteinitiative.eu).

Representatives of the industrial interests have recognized the signs of the times. It would be good if as many representatives as possible of manufacturing plants, companies from the supplier industry, and the scientific community would support their work. Because the music for all of us will in future come more and more clearly from Brussels.