In mid-June, the Commission launched this survey for an inception impact assessment of the Regulation revision on the objectives and options that the Commission is considering. This consultation is addressed to the construction sector stakeholders. Deadline is on 19 August.

With this consultation, the official process of the Regulation revision is initiated. During summer, the Commission has planned to carry out a public survey.

Prior to the survey for the inception impact assessment, the Commission launched a survey on the options for the Regulation revision, also addressed to the stakeholders’ representatives, with deadline on 30 August.

There are then two open surveys for the Regulation revision: one to assess the possible changes and another to assess their impact.

On the basis of the Commission’s Reports on the Regulation assessment and on EOTA activity, both published on 24 October 2019, the Commission considers that a Regulation revision is necessary.

To do so, it foresees five possible scenarios. The basic options associated with these scenarios are set out below, as indicated in the Commission document “Refined indicative options for the review of the Construction Products Regulation – Version 2”.

• “Option A – Baseline scenario
• Option B – Repairing the CPR
• Option C – Focusing the CPR
• Option D – Enhancing the CPR
• Option E – Repealing the CPR”

Option A does not introduce legislative changes to the Regulation. It is based on the clarification and improvement by means of guidelines for its application and soft law.

Option B introduces technical changes (e.g. Basic Requirement no. 7, circularity, consistency with other European provisions), changes in the Regulation framework (e.g. involved bodies and their functions) and in the legal instruments (e.g. Commission delegated acts including the harmonised technical specifications or referring to them). It also introduces the clarifications needed in its scope.

Options C and D are combined with Option B, which is the main one. Option C has three possible elements and Option D, two variants. These options also introduce relevant changes.

Option E proposes the withdrawal of the Regulation and its replacement by the mutual recognition mechanism, even though recognising that is minimally operational in construction products, due to the regulatory differences existing between Member States.

See details in the Commission document indicated above.

The legal aspects of harmonised technical specifications are an important point in Options B, C and D. Besides, one of its objectives is to limit the harmonised sphere to those products, assessment methods or essential characteristics – depending on the adopted option – considered as a priority. Products with few regulatory needs, few safety and environmental covered aspects, or little market at European level, may be excluded.

The development of option B and option B, C and D combinations until their implementation, together with the existing technical specifications update, can take 10 years. The Regulation revision, strictly, can take 5 years. For this reason, over a very long transitional period, harmonised technical specifications according to the revised Regulation will co-exist with the present Regulation ones.

In view of the options raised, we are especially concerned about:

• The sector undergoing radical change while still assimilating the changes introduced by the current Regulation in relation to the Directive.
• The harmonised field reduced to products and aspects considered as a priority. This will force manufacturers of the excluded products to address to all the countries where they want to market their product. This may be significantly detrimental to SMEs.
• The ETA route removed, which enables any manufacturer of an innovative product or a product without a harmonised standard to access the European market.
• A very long and complex transitional period needed, in which products with new rules will co-exist with products with current rules.
• The European construction products market no longer being a wide, complete, and accessible market to any product and manufacturer, whether SME or large enterprise.

For these reasons, it would be very important to consider how to use all the potential of the present Regulation before entering a way that may have a very significant impact on the sector.

For example, there are delegated acts foreseen in the current Regulation to stablish minimum essential characteristics or threshold values that have not been used or minimally. This aspect may be highly relevant for safety. Annex II amendment is also foreseen – which has not been developed – for EADs procedure, which is very narrow^[1] and favours the very criticised EAD proliferation. In other words, there is a considerable room for improvement as yet not been exploited.

The legal aspects that have emerged from recent court rulings and indicated by the Commission are already being considered in the EADs. There are some aspects pending to be resolved by the Commission. Apparently, the Commission is working on a document on the legal aspects that must meet the harmonised technical specifications, which may be a significant help to ease the harmonised works.

Finally, in our opinion the main objective of the Regulation should be kept – ensure the free circulation of the construction products in the European Union –, taking maximum advantage of the room for improvement of the present text and using soft law to where possible.

[1] The development of an EAD can only be carried out on the basis of an ETA request from a manufacturer, under confidentiality conditions. This encourages EAD proliferation in very active product areas.

Eleven Spanish organisations have written to the Internal Market Commissioner, Mr. Thierry Breton, to request the maintenance of the ETA (European Technical Assessment) route in the Construction Products Regulation revision.

The Commission initiated the Regulation revision process, for which it is considering possible options and consulting the stakeholders of the sector.

The ETA route enables the CE marking of products which cannot take advantage of a harmonised standard. Currently, there are more than 8.000 issued ETA in Europe, for around to 2.700 manufacturers, both SMEs and large enterprises.

This route facilitates improvement and innovation in construction products, as well as their access to the European market. It is, therefore, a key instrument for a wide, complete, and accessible European construction products market for both SMEs and large enterprises.

The organisations signing the letter represent a wide number of groups. They are the following ones:

• CEPCO – Confederación Española de Asociaciones de Fabricantes de Productos de Construcción
• CNC – Confederación Nacional de la Construcción
• PTEC – Plataforma Tecnológica Española de Construcción
• AECCTI – Asociación de Empresas de Control de Calidad y Control Técnico Independientes
• ANFAPA – Asociación de Fabricantes de Morteros y SATE
• Tecnifuego – Asociación Española de Sociedades de Protección Contra Incendios
• CSCAE – Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España
• CGATE – Consejo General de la Arquitectura Técnica de España
• IETcc – Instituto de Ciencias de la Construcción Eduardo Torroja
• ITeC – Instituto de Tecnología de la Construcción de Cataluña
• Tecnalia – Fundación Tecnalia Research & Innovation

See the letter

According to the information received, the ETA route is not a priority in the Regulation revision, for the Commission. This may affect the free circulation of products in the European Union. For this reason, we think that not considering this route in the Regulation revision would have very negative consequences for the sector, because this would imply that:

• Manufacturers would not have an instrument of recognised prestige available for the internationalisation of their products, at European and also third countries level.
• Innovative products and products without a harmonised standard not considered as “priority” in the most outstanding revision options will have to assume a higher economic cost and a higher management burden because they cannot use a harmonised route.
• Moreover, the time needed to obtain the different certificates in the Member States where the manufacturers would like to market their products would be significantly longer than in the ETA route.
• The withdrawal of this instrument would entail substantial economic losses because the manufacturers that have used it should apply new instruments and, especially, because of the loss of the added value already acquired by the products on the market thanks to having an ETA.

For this reason, this initiative is important and necessary at this stage, in which the official Regulation revision process is initiated (see previous point).

With the publication of EADs 130186 and 130367, there are twenty EAD published based on ETA Guidelines, of which the modification of one has already been published.

Published EAD relation:

• EAD 030351-00-0402, for systems of mechanically fastened flexible roof waterproofing sheets (conversion from ETA Guideline 006): published in the OJEU, on 29.05.2019.
• EAD 090062-00-0404, for kits for external wall claddings mechanically fixed (conversion from ETA Guideline 034 parts 1 and 2): published in the OJEU, on 16.11.2018.
• EAD 130186-00-0603, for three-dimensional nailing plates (conversion from ETA Guideline 015): published in the OJEU, on 03.07.2020.
• EAD 130367-00-0304, for composite wood-based beams and columns (conversion from ETA Guidelines 011): published on 03.07.2020.
• EADs 160004-00-0301 and 160027-00-0301, for kits of post-tensioning systems for prestressing of structures (conversion from ETA Guideline 013): EADs published in the OJEU, on 15.12.2017.
• EAD 210005-00-0505, for internal partition kits for use as non-loadbearing walls (conversion from ETA Guideline 003): EAD published in the OJEU, on 29.05.2019.
• EAD 220089-00-0401, for self-supporting translucent roof kits with covering made of plastic sheets -except from the ones made of glass (conversion from the ETA Guideline 010): published in the OJEU, on 29.05.2019.
• EAD 330076-00-0604, on metal injection anchors for use in masonry (conversion from ETA Guideline 029): published in the OJEU, on 15.12.2017.
• EAD 330196-01-0604, on plastic anchors made of virgin or non-virgin material for fixing of external thermal insulation systems with rendering (conversion from ETA Guideline 014): modification published in the OJEU, on 10.11.2017.
• EAD 330232-00-0601, on mechanical fasteners for use in concrete (conversion from ETA Guideline 001 parts 1 to 4): published in the OJEU, on 9.12.2016.
• EAD 330499-00-0601, on bonded fasteners for use in concrete (conversion from ETA Guideline 001 part 5): published in the OJEU, on 15.12.2017.
• EAD 330747-00-0601, on fasteners for use in concrete for redundant non-structural systems (conversion from ETA Guideline 001 part 6): published in the OJEU, on 10.08.2018.
• EAD 340006-00-0506, on prefabricated stairs kits (conversion from ETA Guideline 008): published in the OJEU, on 13.05.2016.
• EAD 340059-00-0106, on falling rock protection kits (conversion from ETA Guideline 027): published in the OJEU, on 16.11.2018.
• EAD 350140-00-1106, on renderings and renderings kits intended for fire resistant applications (conversion from ETA Guideline 018 part 3): published in the OJEU, on 15.12.2017.
• EAD 350141-00-1106, on linear joint and gap seals (conversion from ETA Guideline 026 part 3): published in the OJEU, on 15.12.2017.
• EAD 350142-00-1106, on fire protective board, slab and mat products and kits (conversion from ETA Guideline 018 part 4): published in the OJEU, on 15.12.2017.
• EAD 350402-00-1106, on reactive coatings for fire protection of steel elements (conversion from ETA Guideline 018 part 2): published in the OJEU, on 15.12.2017.
• EAD 350454-00-1104, on fire stopping and fire sealing products – penetration seals (conversion from ETA Guideline 026 part 2): published in the OJEU, on 15.12.2017.

All published EAD can be consulted on the EOTA website under the heading “Our Publications”.

At the Technical Board meeting no. 28 the current status of the twelve conversions presently in progress was informed.

As indicated in previous Reports four different basic phases can be distinguished in the conversion process from the ETA Guidelines to EAD:

1^st Elaboration and adoption by the working group;
2^nd Adoption by EOTA – by the designated bodies;
3^rd Comments of the Commission – including their consideration;
4^th Publication – this may also include the comments of the Commission, in the final review of the EADs;

At this moment, all conversions are at the fourth phase.

Detailed situation of the conversions:

• EAD on structural sealant glazing systems (conversion from ETA Guideline 002 parts 1 and 3): comments received from the Commission at the publication phase are being addressed.
• EAD on external thermal insulation systems (conversion from ETA Guideline 004): after considering the Commission’s comments, it was sent to the Commission for publication on 21 April.
• EAD on liquid applied roof waterproofing kits (conversion from ETA Guideline 005): after considering the Commission’s comments, it was sent to the Commission for publication on 24 February.
• EAD on timber frame prefabricated building kits (conversion from ETA Guideline 007): comments received from the Commission at the publication phase on 5 June are being addressed.
• EAD on non-loadbearing permanent shuttering systems based on hollow blocks or panels of insulating materials and concrete (conversion from ETA Guideline 009): comments received from the Commission at the publication phase on 7 May are being addressed.
• EAD on prefabricated units for external wall insulation (conversion from ETA Guideline 017): see information in section “ITeC and the European Technical Assessment”.
• EAD on prefabricated wood-based panels bearing tensioned forces (conversion from ETA Guideline 019): as yet not published; sent to the Commission on 26 March for the final review.
• EAD on plastic anchors (conversion from ETA Guideline 020): as yet not published; sent to the Commission on 22 May for the final review.
• EADs on watertight covering kits for wet room floors and or walls (conversion from ETA Guideline 022 parts 1-3): as yet not published; sent to the Commission on 14 April for the final review.
• EAD on fire retardant products (conversion from ETA Guideline 028): see information in section “ITeC and the European Technical Assessment”.
• EAD on connectors for structural joints (conversion from ETA Guideline 030): as yet not published; sent to the Commission on 4 May for the final review.
• EAD on expansion joints for road bridges (conversion from ETA Guideline 032 parts 1-8): as yet not published; sent to the Commission on 15 May for the final review.

• Conversion from the ETA Guideline for fire retardant products (ETAG 028)

  After considering the Commission’s comments, the revised EAD was sent to the Commission for publication on 18 December 2019.

• Conversion from the ETA Guideline on prefabricated units for external wall insulation (ETAG 017) – work led by CSTB-ITeC:

  As yet not published. Sent to the Commission for the final review on 5 June.

  Regarding the second phase of this Guideline conversion, an initial meeting was held on 13 May (kick-off meeting) by videoconference, with ITeC’s participation.

• Conversion of the ETA Guideline for façade cladding kits (ETAG 034)

  EAD 090062-00-0404 “Kits for external wall claddings mechanically fixed”: reference published in the OJEU, dated on 16.11.2018, by means of the Communication 2018/C 417/07. The full text can be consulted in the section “Our Publications” of the EOTA website.

  Regarding the second phase of this Guideline conversion, an initial meeting was held on 17 June (kick-off meeting) by videoconference, led by ITeC.

In addition to EAD 090062-00-0404, ITeC has twelve EAD published in the OJEU and is currently working on a further fifteen, three of which are EAD amendments:

• two have been sent to the Commission for the publication phase
• four have already been adopted by EOTA and the corresponding ETA is now under preparation
• the remaining nine are at different stages of elaboration

Note: at this point, the conversion works from the ETA Guidelines to EAD indicated in the first item of this section, are not considered.

Between 05.05.2020 and 08.07.2020, ITeC issued three ETA and has forty-six in process. The issued ETAs correspond to the following three EAD (see EOTA website, “Our Publications” section).

• EAD 230145-00-0105, on compound for bitumen and bituminous mixtures made of crumb rubber powder
  • ETA 20/0377 RARX®, from CÍRCULO TECNOLÓGICO 2020 SL
• EAD 350140-00-1106, on renderings and rendering kits intended for fire resistant applications
  • ETA 18/0456 Perliwool® from MINERAL FIBER SOLUTIONS SL
• EAD 360001-01-0803, on ventilation systems made of mineral wool with facings on outside and inside
  • ETA 20/122 CLIMAVER® HVAC duct system from SAINT-GOBAIN ISOVER

This is a new essential characteristic that must be considered in Basic Requirement 2 Security in case of fire, in the Construction Products Regulation framework. It is a characteristic related to reaction to fire of the products classified according to EN 13501-1.

It is based on a phenomenon characteristic of some materials, whose composition could favour that, when exposed to fire and in certain conditions, a continuous smouldering without visible flame, at a relatively low temperature, moves through the body of the material.

This could result in secondary fire focuses. In numerous cases, fires apparently extinct have had re-ignitions due to these latent energy focuses, which remained masked because no flame was developed.

The continuous smouldering can happen, typically, in products or components based on wood, like fibre or particle panels, or products made of cork, mineral wool, or other vegetal or animal fibres.

In order to assess this characteristic, the standard used is EN 16733 Reaction to fire tests for building products – Determination of a building product’s propensity to undergo continuous smouldering, existing since 2016.

For those products made of materials like the ones indicated above, the harmonised technical specifications for the CE marking (harmonised standards and EADs) have already started to include this characteristic, which is or will be reflected in the Declaration of Performance of these products.

At present this characteristic is only required in some Member States of the European Union, for example Germany. It is neither the case of Spain nor the majority of the Member States.

• Technical Board No. 28, Brussels, 10 and 11 June 2020 (*)

• Technical Board No. 29, 22 and 23 September 2020 (*)
• General Assembly of EOTA, Brussels, 10 December 2020
• Technical Board No. 30, Brussels, 15 and 16 December 2020