Key Parliament committee backs industry-friendly revamp of EU construction product rules

A reform of the rules governing the EU’s trade in construction products has won crucial backing from the European Parliament’s internal market committee, but with environmentalists complaining it was too soft on industry demands.

Construction products are the biggest consumers of materials in Europe. According to EU figures, their manufacturing accounts for 50% of materials consumed in the EU, one-third of the waste produced, and about one-third of the water consumed.

They are also at the heart of the construction industry ecosystem, which is worth €904 billion in value, and provides 18 million direct jobs in Europe.

At the same time, their environmental impact is currently left largely unaddressed.

To tackle this, the European Commission launched a revision of the construction product regulation last year, aiming to bring it in line with the bloc’s green ambitions and tackle the massive backlog of new product applications.

Making the law greener is not the biggest priority to the man in charge, though.

“We have made this very complex proposal more user-friendly and applicable,” says Christian Doleschal, a centre-right lawmaker from Bavaria who is the European Parliament’s speaker the law.

Tackling the backlog of applications for construction product standards had been the Bavarian MEP’s key priority going into the revision.

“We break up the backlog of standards that has existed for years,” he declared on Tuesday (24 May), saying that standards – a prerequisite for entering the EU market – should now be awarded more quickly thanks to a clearer definition of regulation’s scope.

His proposal was adopted with 25 votes in favour, seven against, and nine abstentions in the Parliament’s internal market committee, a key step before the draft regulation is submitted to the plenary.

Given the law’s environmental impact, the Parliament’s environment committee got a say as well but Doleschal largely ignored the committee’s inputs.

EURACTIV previously revealed that Doleschal was very open to industry’s input – a bit too much even, according to environmentalists. 

Key changes proposed by the European Commission to promote greener construction products – like mandating national governments to prioritise them, as well as introducing a more comprehensive sustainability information standard – were slashed by Doleschal.

While the industry favours the existing scheme of environmental product declarations (EDPs), opponents argue that EDPs are too limited and make comparisons of different construction products nearly impossible.

“The European Parliament has chosen the ineffective status quo, ignoring the enormous environmental footprint of the construction sector,” said Frederica Pozzi of Ecos, a green standards advocacy group. 

While Doleschal hailed the narrowing of the construction product regulation’s scope as a win, Pozzi expressed a different view.

“Being selective about which products we make sustainable might suit powerful lobbies, but it is a massive loss for the environment, EU competitiveness, innovation, and consumers.”

Several construction-related business sectors were taken out of the law’s scope by the Bavarian lawmaker, including construction works and much of 3D-printed materials. 

The construction industry welcomed the changes made by Parliament.

“Eurima supports the revise and repair approach to the current CPR, which is reflected in today’s vote,” said David Kupfer, policy manager at the insulation material association Eurima.

Doleschal’s focus on speeding up the introduction of standards “is an important step towards achieving much needed progress towards a single market for construction products,” he added.

A broader grouping of industry associations – Construction Products Europe, the European Construction Industry Federation, the European Builders Confederation, and Small Business Standards – also welcomed the vote.

The associations particularly praised MEPs for removing the European Commission’s ability to pass penalties, as well as for their speedy transition to the new law.

But they had their own demands, too. “We would request” the exclusion of “all references to ‘services’ from the scope” of the regulation, as well as “deconstruction,” the industry groups said. 

However, this would limit the scope of the revamp designed to foster sustainability, sources close to the negotiations have warned.

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The road ahead

The Parliament’s internal market committee (IMCO) vote must now be confirmed in a plenary vote scheduled for July, just before lawmakers retire for their annual summer break.

“It’s now important that the plenary in July” upholds the “continued and reinforced use of Environmental Product Declarations,” said industry lobbyist Kupfer.

Ecos similarly called on the hemicycle to make changes to the law.

“In the plenary foreseen for July, it is imperative that MEPs … strike down the very environmentally damaging approach taken by the IMCO rapporteur Mr Doleschal,” the NGO said in a statement.

With working groups among the EU countries wrapping up work this week, an agreement is slated for late July – leaving the incoming Spanish EU Council presidency to lead the negotiations in the second half of the year.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic and Frédéric Simon]

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