Construction Products Regulation

BACKGROUND

An area previously covered by the Construction Products Directive (CPD) initially created to ensure the free movement of all construction products within the European Union by harmonising national laws with respect to the essential requirements applicable to these products in terms of health and safety. The 'essential requirements' relates to the fact that the Directive was created under the CE Marking system for manufacturers.

However the Directive is now outdated and so a new Regulation (EU) No 305/201 (now 'the Regulation) was proposed to modernise and streamline under the 'New Approach' method for the Single Market.

SUMMARY

This Regulation is designed to simplify and clarify the existing framework for the placing on the market of construction products. It lays down the conditions for placing construction products on the market by establishing harmonised rules on how to express the performance of construction products in relation to their essential characteristics and on the use of CE marking on those products.

The provisions of the new Regulation seek to:

• clarify the affixing of CE marking: CE marking is affixed to construction products for which the manufacturer has drawn up a declaration of performance. By affixing the CE marking to a construction product, manufacturers indicate that they take responsibility for the conformity of that product with its declared performance;
• introduce simplified procedures enabling costs borne by business, especially SMEs, to be reduced and to impose stricter designation for organisations responsible for assessing the performance of construction products and the verification of the products' constancy.

Reliable and precise information on performance

The system applied to improve the reliability and precision of construction products comprises two main elements:

• A body of harmonised technical specifications, harmonised standards and European Assessment Documents (EADs) providing the methods necessary for the assessment of the performance of the products,
• Designated organisations and technical assessment bodies (TABs) selected according to rigorously defined criteria that guarantee the proper use of these methods, while maintaining a degree of transparency.
  

Main provisions

The most relevant provisions of the Regulation are: 

1) Section 7 - The drawing up the declaration of performance by electronic means
The declaration of performance shall be numbered according to the reference number of the product type;

2) Section 37 - Simplified procedures for micro-enterprises
When manufacturers use these simplified procedures, they shall still have to demonstrate the construction product is compliant with the applicable requirements, most notably respecting safety standards.

3) Section 10 – Country Contact Points
National administrations will be required to provide certain information via construction products contact points. The contact points should be in a position to carry out their tasks avoiding conflicts of interest, in particular with regard to the access procedure to CE marking. EU countries must also ensure that there are sufficient resources allocated to the product contact points.

4) Generally – Environment and safety

The environment and safety aspects relate mainly to;

• the use of construction products throughout their life cycle
• the dangerous substances used in their manufacture.

Information regarding the content of hazardous substances are, in the first instance, limited to those substances covered by Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 (REACH Regulation);

Also under Article 67 the European Commission will review the need for information on the content of hazardous substances in construction products by 25 April 2014 and may extend the obligation to provide information to other substances, specifically with a focus on health and safety and recycling.

Who will it affect?

'Construction product' is defined as:

"any product or kit which is produced and placed on the market for incorporation in a permanent manner in construction works or parts thereof and the performance of which has an effect on the performance of the construction works with respect to the basic requirements for construction works"

So any products that fall under that definition will have to be wary of the new Regulations.

IMPLEMENTATION

Provisions of the Regulation will come directly into force on April 24th 2011, with the following articles coming into effect on that date:

• Sections 1 and 2 - Subject matter and Definitions
• Sections 29 to 35 - Technical Assessment Bodies (TABs)
• Sections 39 to 55 - Notifying Authorities and Notified Bodies
• Sections 64 - Standing Committee on Construction
• Sections 67 to 68 - Reporting by the Commission and Entry into Force
• Annex IV- Product areas and requirements for TABs.

At the end there is now a transition period before the CPD is withdrawn on June 30th 2013 and any products placed on the market in accordance with CPD before 1 July 2013 will still be lawful. However on July 1st 2013 the CPD will be officially repealed and the new Regulation will come into full effect.

MORE INFORMATION

CE Marking