EU: Construction Services Act

 

The EU has launched a public consultation on a new Construction Services Act.

The Single Market Strategy, adopted on 21 May 2025, introduced a new sector-specific approach for services within the Single Market. This complements existing horizontal policies and aims to inject new momentum—particularly in service sectors central to the twin green and digital transitions and capable of generating high economic value.

Construction was identified in the Single Market at 30 Communication as a services-intensive ecosystem that has not yet fully tapped its potential for cross-border activity. The initiative aligns with the European Affordable Housing Plan and the European Strategy for Housing Construction, both of which seek to expand and accelerate the supply of affordable, sustainable, and decent housing across the EU. It will also link to the forthcoming Fair Labour Mobility Package, including the Skills Portability Initiative. The goal is to unlock the Single Market’s potential for construction and installation services, boost sector productivity, and modernise the regulatory framework. Workshops with the Services Directive Expert Group and stakeholders highlighted several barriers to cross-border construction and installation service provision.

The construction ecosystem accounts for roughly 12% of the EU’s Gross Value Added, yet cross-border activity in construction services remains limited. Trade integration in this sector stands at just 1%, compared to 6% for services overall. Contributing factors include divergent national legislation, difficulties accessing information, and obstacles to participating in public procurement in other Member States. These challenges are especially burdensome in border regions, where SMEs struggle to serve nearby markets across the border. Limited integration also exacerbates shortages of construction service providers for new housing, renovation, offsite construction, repurposing, and other infrastructure projects.

Through targeted stakeholder consultations, the Commission has identified the following initial, non-exhaustive issues:

Issue 1: Insufficient mutual recognition of national authorisations, certificates, and competency proofs—e.g., in occupational health and safety, energy efficiency, and environmental requirements.
Issue 2: Difficulties for foreign-established companies in obtaining national construction site cards and a lack of recognition of cards issued in the home Member State.
Issue 3: Barriers to professional mobility arising from the high number of regulated professions and challenges in the mutual recognition of professional qualifications (linked to the Fair Labour Mobility Package, the Quality Jobs Roadmap and Act, and the Skills Portability Initiative).

Stakeholders also pointed to additional cross-border challenges, addressed in other EU initiatives but relevant to construction services:

• Limited availability of cross-border liability insurance or recognition of home-country insurance coverage.
• Paritarian fund contributions that can lead to double payments in home and host Member States, particularly when posting workers.
• Complicated cross-border disposal and shipment of construction waste, including inconsistent material classifications, differing import limits, and a lack of industrial-scale approaches (related to work on the Circular Economy Act).
• Difficulties accessing public procurement markets in other Member States (linked to the revision of the Public Procurement Framework).

This list is not exhaustive and does not capture all challenges affecting the cross-border provision of construction and installation services.