Happy new year! 2019 retrospective and 2020 look ahead
2019 was a year of change and exciting developments in Brussels, with the start of a new legislative term and the subsequent launch of the European Green Deal.
But the electrical contracting sector also went through changes, and 2019 was a landmark year for us, too. Our association shed its 1950s name and is now called EuropeOn to reflect the renewed ambition and expanded scope of our businesses, moving towards clean and digital technologies and from the position of “installers” to the one of “integrators”.
What are our 2019 highlights?
- We released the first European electrical contracting sector report, showing that 300,000 companies and 1.8 million professionals in the electro-technical business are making the energy transition happen in Europe;
- The #Skills4Climate campaign, which we launched together with several major EU associations and companies, has brought attention to the main challenge to our sector and to the achievement of the European Green Deal: the growing need for highly skilled electro-technical professionals;
- We bolstered our stance on electrification as an active member of the Electrification Alliance and the Platform for Electromobility, pushing for electrification as the key driver for decarbonisation, competitiveness and growth in Europe;
- In coordination with like-minded stakeholders, we called on new EU policymakers to strengthen the role of green and smart energy technologies in the building stock. Additionally, we held the first-ever European conference enabling the exchange of best practices on the electrical safety requirements of those green and smart buildings.
As we look ahead at 2020, the main take-away from 2019 remains the Green Deal. This initiative will certainly underpin our work at EU level for the years to come. Touching on several areas of interest for our sector, the Von der Leyen Commission has provided us with a full roadmap with this Green Deal.
- The Green Deal calls for a holistic strategy for “sustainable and smart mobility”. EuropeOn will contribute to proving that the swift and smart decarbonisation of the transport sector through electrical technologies is both possible and desirable;
- The skills debate will certainly continue in preparation of the Climate Pact and the new 2030 and 2050 decarbonisation targets. We will push for proper consideration of the impact of increased climate ambition on the workforce responsible for the achievement of climate objectives;
- Buildings will still be in the centre of our focus: we will contribute to the planned “renovation wave” initiative and investigate the technologies that make our buildings future-proof, starting with a guidebook on “Power over Ethernet”, which we will release within a few weeks;
- Finally, we will contribute to the upcoming “strategy for smart sector integration”, which must tap into the first-hand expertise of our businesses when it comes to electrifying heating and mobility and integrating technologies in buildings and infrastructure.
