News 2025

120 Years of FIEC - what a remarkable journey!
Discover our history

The European Construction Industry Federation was founded in 1905: We are older than the European Union and we witnessed its 'birth'.

Today, after 120 years, FIEC has its flags in 32 national member federations, in 27 European countries (24 EU & Norway, Switzerland, Ukraine) and represents construction companies of all sizes, from SMEs to large international firms, across various building and civil engineering specialties. It is the recognised Social Partner for employers in the European Sectoral Social Dialogue "Construction".

A LOOK BACK

While searching our archives, we found old pictures, and quotations addressing our Federation by public figures of the past. The first tentative step towards creating FIEC was taken as early as 1881. At the invitation of the Chamber of Commerce of the Belgian city of Liège, delegations of building contractors from Belgium, France, Great Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and Switzerland attended a congress in the city in July. Although this congress was hailed as a total success, it remained a dead letter.
As is often the case in history, it was thanks to the initiative of one man that the contacts that had been broken off for some 20 years were resumed at the start of the 20th century. From 1901 on, the then Secretary General and later President of the Belgian Construction and Public Works Federation, Frans van Ophem, forged a number of new ties. Following several trips to various European countries, his great idea of bringing together federations “to become acquainted with and to be able to compare the working methods of foreign contractors” met with widespread agreement.

Thus, the first International Congress of the Construction and Public Works sector (Congrès international de l’Industrie du Bâtiment et des Travaux Publics) took place from 14 to 21 September 1905 in Liège, within the framework of the World Exhibition. The call to participate in this initiative was heard and many responded. In addition to representatives of 27 organisations from the host country (Belgium), there were delegations from France, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Austria, Denmark, Hungary and Sweden and, outside Europe, from Mexico. 

The moving spirit was Frans van Ophem. In his inaugural address, he called on the entrepreneurs present to discuss and solve the problems on the agenda in a spirit of solidarity. And three Commissions were set up to do deal with a series of topics and themes.