Lütke Daldrup: Construction industry continues to drive growth and employment in Europe
European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC) in Lisbon

Berlin, Germany – The European construction industry has grown steadily over the past 13 years and experts predict that this will continue during from 2007 to 2009. Speaking 2007-06-01 in Lisbon, Dr Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, State Secretary in the Federal Building Ministry said, "Construction activity in Europe continues to boom and Germany is once again contributing to this momentum. The European construction sector is still an important driving force behind growth and employment in Europe".

Dr Lütke Daldrup went on to say that the German Presidency of the European Council has set clear priorities in key construction industry business segments. This can be seen in the energy and climate protection sector, where the European states have agreed to cut CO2 emissions by at least 20 percent from 1990 to 2020 and increase the share of energy provided by renewable sources to 20 percent. This is an area of great interest for the future of the construction industry.

The same applies to the strengthening of European cities and their regions: "The Leipzig Charter on Sustainable European Cities, which was adopted last week, and in particular the EU Territorial Agenda, were developed in close cooperation with the business community. What we need are simple and cooperative planning processes and improved collaboration and coordination between private and public players", said Lütke Daldrup.

Commenting further, Lütke Daldrup said that there is also a demand for the construction industry to solve infrastructure problems. Dynamic growth in the future cannot be sustained without increasing investments in this market. "Trans-European transport infrastructure alone will require a total investment of around 600 billion euros by 2020. In this context, a competitive European construction industry has excellent prospects".