Concrete Perspectives May 2013

CONSTRUCTION SECTOR

Short term

long ter mconstruction

LIVE FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION

 

European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities

On 14 May 2013, the first meeting of the High Level group (HLG) of European Innovation Partnership took place. Participants of the HLG are CEOs, city mayors, regulatory authorities, public financing institutions and industry representatives. Energy Commissioner Mr. Günther Oettinger participated at the event and gave a speech on “What are the priorities to address the challenges for Smart Cities and Communities?”

 

The Smart cities and communities initiative was published on 10 July 2012 and amongst other, aims at increasing resource efficiency leading to sustainable building materials. The initiative earmarked €365 million of EU funds for the development of wide-scale deployment of innovative technologies in the areas of mobility management, smart buildings and neighbourhoods, energy generation, distribution and consumption, and information and communication technologies.

 

The initiative builds on existing EU and national policies and programmes such as CIVITAS, CONCERTO and Intelligent Energy Europe. Local authorities are important actors in both proposing and implementing actions. The initiative will be probably interlinked through the Convenant of Mayors.

 

This autumn, the HLG plans to publish a Strategic Implementation Plan that will outline specific operational objectives and advise the Commission on its innovation agenda. 

Smart Cities and Communities

Commissioner Oettinger’s speech

 

Improving access to finance for SMEs

On 2 May 2013, European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani, responsible for enterprise and industry policy, today also launched a new single online portal on all EU financial instruments for SMEs as well an information guide to promote SME stock listings.

 

The new portal provides simple and easy access to over €100 billion of EU financing available under the different EU programmes in the current programme period (2007-2013). Europe is providing a mix of flexible financial instruments under programmes such as the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), Progress Microfinance, the Risk Sharing Instrument (FP7), EIB loans and Structural Funds.

European Commission – Press Release

 

 

NEWS IN BRIEF – Principal European Economic Indicators (EUROSTAT)

Graphs 2013 May

OUTSTANDING PROJECTS

portrait willemalexander

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each year in Holland, the birthday of Queen Beatrix is celebrated on 30th of April. It’s a national holiday, when everybody is dressed in orange and celebrates with music and markets. Normally, the Royal family visits two Dutch towns to celebrate with the inhabitants of the village. This year, however, the announced visit of the Royal family was cancelled, due to a historic event: Queen Beatrix handed over the power to her son, Willem-Alexander. He was crowned king of the Netherlands on the 30th of April.

The cancellation of the visit to the chosen towns was a disappointment for the local communities. The Dutch Precast Association (BFBN) however decided to comfort the towns and their inhabitants with a special gift: a portrait of king Willem-Alexander, made out of concrete pavement stones. The portrait, made out of five shades of grey stones, got a place of honor in the two Dutch towns Amstelveen and Graft-De Rijp. The portrait is best to be viewed from a height. In the picture the portrait as it is to be seen in Amstelveen, on the city square.

 

AGENDA

JUNE

 

4 June 2013

CEPMC General Assembly

Brussels, Belgium

 

7 June 2013

ERMCO General Assembly

Lisbon, Portugal

 

14 June 2013

BIBM General Assembly

Oslo, Norway

 

20 June 2013

CEN workshop on PCRs

Brussels, Belgium

 

24-25 June 2013

PCR meeting

Brussels, Belgium

 

26 June 2013

CEPMC CPR meeting

Brussels, Belgium

 

28 June 2013

EBC General Assembly

Brussels, Belgium

 

AUGUST

 

28 August

CEN/TC 104/TG 20/Editorial panel

Brussels, Belgium