New Construction Products Regulation

Author: Christian Lais, Siemens (member of Euralarms TC Horizontal Compliance)

The REGULATION (EU) No 305/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council, as of March 9^th 2011, laying down harmonised conditions for the marketing of construction products and repealing Council Directive 89/106/EEC (known as CPD), was published on April 4^th 2011 and shall enter into force on the 20th day following.

However, Articles 3 to 28, Articles 36 to 38, Articles 56 to 63, Articles 65 and 66, as well as Annexes I, II, III and V shall apply from July 1^st 2013.

General background

Article 249 of the European Union consolidated treaty states that "... A Regulation shall have general application. It shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. ..." whereas "... A Directive shall be binding, as to the result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which it is addressed, but shall leave to the national authorities the choice of form and methods. ..."

Due to the fact that the CPR is a Regulation it will become mandatory without the requirement for any national implementation measures from April 24^th 2011, with the following articles coming into effect first:

• 1 to 2, Subject matter and Definitions
• 29 to 35, Technical Assessment Bodies (TABs)
• 39 to 55, Notifying Authorities and Notified Bodies
• 64, Standing Committee on Construction
• 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At the end there is now a transition period before the CPD is withdrawn on June 30^th 2013, so that the CPR comes fully into force on July 1^st 2013. This means that at least at that point of time the CPR automatically overrides conflicting domestic provisions e.g. such as a transformed CPD being brought into national law in a particular Member State.

All this begun with the modernisation of the New Approach the so called New Legislative Framework, NLF:

The NLF, the modernisation of the New Approach for marketing of products, was also published as a Regulation and set in force as of January, 1^st, 2010. This broad package of measures (Regulation No 764/2008, Regulation No 765/2008 and Decision No 768/2008/EC) aims to provide the following:

- better rules on market surveillance to protect both consumers and professionals from unsafe products

- clearer rules on the requirements for notification of conformity assessment bodies (testing, certification and inspection laboratories)

- enhancement of the credibility and clarification of the meaning of CE marking

- establishment of a common legal framework for industrial products in the form of a toolbox of measures for use in future legislation

For those interested in learning more about the NLF, the following web site provides full details: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/single-market-goods/regulatory-policies-common-rules-for-products/new-legislative-framework/.

With regards to the CPR the Commission is of the following opinion The objective is to replace the CPD, by a Regulation, with the aim of better defining the objectives of this Community legislation, as well as making its implementation easier and more efficient. As part of the Better Regulation initiative, the proposal intends to bring about simplification of the current CPD-based system notably through the introduction of simplified procedures, so as to reduce the costs incurred by enterprises, in particular SMEs; clarification of the basic concepts and the use of CE marking; and to increase the credibility of the whole system by imposing new and stricter designation criteria to bodies involved in the assessment and the verification of constancy of performance of construction products. , Brussels, February 28^th, 2011.

Legal consequences out of the NLF and CPR:

Since January, 1^st, 2010 - with regards to the NLF - all local governments within the European Union had to implement the above mentioned aims. As a consequence and in relation to the CPR, this means that there will be (national) so called Technical Assessment Bodies, Product Contact Points and for sure, more Market Surveillance (nationally organised).

Responsibility of Technical Assessment Bodies, TAB (Article 19 to 26, Chapter V, Annex II etc., CPR):

• A TAB will be active only if no harmonised standard (hEN) exists or a manufacturer can prove that his product is not or is only partly covered by a hEN.
• Coordination of the TABs and, if necessary, ensured cooperation and consultation with other stakeholders is a European responsibility.

These days a TAB is comparable with the European Organisation for Technical Approvals (EOTA) and the associated European Technical Approvals (ETAs) as used by EU Member States and EFTA States.

Responsibility of a Product Contact Point (Article 10, CPR & Article 9 to 11, Regulation No 764/2008):

• Provide information on the provisions within its territory aimed at fulfilling basic requirements for construction works applicable.
• Provide information about the (minimum) performance of a construction product (see e. g. current discussions about Options with requirements, EN54-2).

Facts the CPR generates - Details to be checked:

Parts of the CPR are in force already but the main impact will be occurring starting on July 1st 2013.

There will be no technical impact on any Construction Product at all. In general the main impact will probably result out of different interpretations and for sure will cause additional paper work. Therefore please check Article 9 and Chapter III, CPR in terms of:

- Product Label, Product enclosed documentation, Background Documentation for the Declaration of Performance (DoP) and

- Obligations of the economic operators. Detailed description for manufacturers, authorised representatives, importers and distributors.

Facts the CPR generates - Whats new compared to the CPD:

- A DoP need to be issued for each product to be able to CE mark it. A paper copy of the DoP only needs to be supplied if the recipient requests it. Publication on the Internet is allowed; different languages are only required up on request from a specific Member State.

- In addition to the DoP, appropriate REACH information must be available as a result of Regulation No 1907/2006, Article 31 (mixture; requirements for safety data sheets) or Article 33 (candidate list; duty to communicate information on substances in articles).

- A CE Declaration of Conformity is still necessary to show compliance according to other applicable Directives like EMC, LVD, R&TTE etc.

- Simplified Procedure (detailed explanation below)

For products according to System 1 (see Mandate M/109, e.g. Fire Detection, Extinguishing) 3^rd party testing is still necessary to allow a notified product certification body to issue the certificate of constancy of performance of the product (cf. CPD: former EC Certificate of Conformity).

Facts the CPR generates- Transitional Provisions (Article 66, CPR)

- Products put on the market before July 1^st, 2013 in compliance with the CPD are deemed to comply with the CPR.

- For products put on the market after July 1^st, 2013 but which were tested and declared in compliance to the CPD before, only a Declaration of Performance needs to be issued to show compliance according to the CPR.

- With regard to Mandate M/109, all EN-Standards under the CPD and also all European Technical Approvals published before July 1^st, 2013 will remain valid and can be used for to demonstrate compliance to CPR there after.