The European Federation of Engineering Consultancy Associations (EFCA) welcomes the priorities of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the European Union and strongly supports its focus on a resilient, competitive and future-ready Europe. Consulting engineers are crucial actors in delivering high-quality infrastructure, accelerating the green and digital transitions and enhancing Europe’s economic strength, climate security and societal well-being.
Open to the world
“The European Union must be autonomous.” This is the first line of the Cypriot Presidency programme and it resonates with the opening lines of EFCA’s EU Election Manifesto 2024. We highlighted the need for EU autonomy then and the seismic events that have confronted the EU since have amplified the urgency of this goal. We therefore applaud the Presidency’s prioritisation of Europe’s strategic autonomy: security, energy, competitiveness, the green and digital transitions. Consulting engineers play an essential role in the delivery of these objectives. They support efforts to strengthen the protection, monitoring and governance of infrastructure assets and provide integrated planning and long-term maintenance for the built environment and technical support systems. Without these, vibrant economies and societal well-being are threatened.
A resilient Europe
EFCA’s current core theme is the resilience of infrastructure and our recent Future Trends reports have focused in particular on transport, energy and ICT. With this in mind, we are well aligned with the Cypriot Presidency’s ambitions and well placed to support the delivery of its programme’s aims. Engineering consultancies are already at the forefront of the green transition, enabling low-carbon, circular and climate-adapted infrastructure across all sectors. The Presidency’s focus on water security and climate preparedness resonates strongly with EFCA’s recent work, including our Statement on the Climate Law and Position Paper on Water Resilience. In addition, a competitive and digitally sovereign Europe depends on modern AI, data and cybersecurity frameworks. EFCA welcomes Presidency initiatives to simplify regulation, accelerate digitalisation of infrastructure, including smart - and dual use - transport systems and digitalised energy grids while enabling responsible uptake of AI. EFCA underlines the importance of capacity-building across the engineering sector to ensure that SMEs, who make up the majority of our industry, benefit fully from these transitions.
Global investment - Global partnerships
EFCA also supports the Presidency’s commitment to advancing EU external instruments, strengthening Global Gateway delivery, and promoting a Team Europe approach. European engineering consultancies are critical partners in the preparation and delivery of basic water, transport, energy and social infrastructure, bringing innovation and reinforcing delivery capacity. Modernising financing instruments and procurement conditions so that European firms can compete globally and drive sustainable development, are essential to the interests of the EU and its partners worldwide.