News 2026

In the construction sector, gold-plating (the practice where EU Member States add extra regulations, stricter standards and rules, or bureaucratic layers - than the minimum required - when transposing EU directives) acts as a major disruptor to the Single Market. Construction relies heavily on cross-border logistics, public tenders, and material standards: over-implementation significantly fragments the industry.

Anti-gold-plating Pact

The European Commission identified gold-plating as one of the "Terrible Ten" barriers to the Single Market. In response, European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen (and her State of the Union SOTEU address of 16 September, 2026) called for a Pact against Gold-Plating, which is now officially proposed to force Member States to justify any additions to EU rules. Ahead of the EU Summit, in her 12 October Letter to Member States, von der Leyen called for transparency about national additions and action to remove existing obstacles.

The pact signing is foreseen by the end of the year. This initiative primarily a call on Member States to stop adding unnecessary burdens – and not a decision to convert all Directives into Regulations.

Von der Leyen highlights the work already carried out by the Commission:

Twelve Omnibus packages and other simplification measures with potential savings of €22.3 billion a year, the EU Inc. proposal to make life easier for businesses, and the Public Procurement Act to streamline procurement. However, this ambition and effort must be shared by every Member State, as simplicity must be reflected at national level, so that burdens are not added later on – von der Leyen remarked during her SOTEU speech.

Public procurement hurdles & delays

Public procurement is a critical driver for the construction industry, but national over-engineering complicates bidding. When Member States transpose EU procurement directives, they often introduce complex national paperwork, multi-tiered authorisation procedures, and stricter domestic criteria.

This creates a culture of legal uncertainty and fear of non-compliance. It heavily disadvantages small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that cannot afford massive legal teams to navigate disparate national laws. To directly combat this fragmentation, the EU proposed the Public Procurement Act, replacing old directives with a single, directly applicable regulation to harmonise rules across the single market.

Fragmentation of construction product standards

The EU attempts to harmonise safety and environmental performance for building materials. However, gold-plating leads individual countries to tack on additional national technical norms, specialised safety demands, unique labeling requirements, or extra environmental thresholds.

A construction manufacturer cannot rely on a single, standardised EU release. Instead, products must be modified and re-certified country-by-country, destroying cross-border trade efficiency and delaying projects.

Administrative bloat and costs

Gold-plating frequently manifests as "administrative over-implementation" - such as demanding extra parallel national permits, new documentation obligations, and redundant digital reporting systems.

For construction companies operating in multiple countries (e.g., a French contractor working on a project in Germany), this means facing vastly longer planning, approval, and inspection windows. It drastically inflates overhead costs and lowers overall European competitiveness.

FIEC: “Simplification should be measured by results”

Our federation demands a radical reduction in administrative red tape and a halt to national gold-plating of EU directives. We advocate for a fully unified Single Market with standardised regulations that protect cross-border trade and favor small businesses (SMEs). Therefore, FIEC pushes for streamlined public procurement and simplified ESG reporting (Environmental, Social, Governance), arguing that excessive bureaucratic hurdles actively drain capital away from actual green investments and industry innovation. Furthermore, FIEC warned that complex reporting criteria should not be artificially expanded by Member States.

Supporting the "Pact against gold-plating"

FIEC aligns its broader advocacy with the European Commission's recent structural reforms, such as the proposed "Pact against gold-plating" and the "Simpler, clearer and better enforced EU rulebook". We believe that 2024–2029 EU legislative cycle must treat competitiveness and strategic autonomy as its guiding principles. And we strongly support the EU’s direction to lean away from complex directives (which leave room for heavy domestic gold-plating) in favour of clear, standardised EU regulations. This ensures that European green and digital transition laws are implemented exactly "one-to-one" at the national level without creating 27 different variations of the same policy.