Construction Products Directive and Regulation
Construction products include a wide range of products, such as cement, bricks, wood, flooring, and complex structures such as facades.
As for facilitating cross-border trade and for overcoming trade barriers in form of national rules and standards the Construction Products Directive (CPD) was published in 1989 (EU Directive 89/106/EEC).
This will soon be superseded by Construction Products Regulation 305/2011/EU (CPR).
Role of Construction Products Directive and Regulation
The objective of the CPD (and soon the CPR) is not to define the safety of construction products, but to ensure that reliable information is presented in relation to their performance - and all this in a harmonized manner across Europe.
This is achieved by providing a common technical language, mainly in harmonized European product performance standards. This shall be used not only by manufacturers, but also by public authorities when defining their requirements on construction works, directly or indirectly influencing the performance classes and other specifications set out for the products for purchase and for use.
The actual requirements still are specified by each EU Member State on its own.
CE marking in this context means just and only a declaration that the information accompanying the product has been attained in accordance with the specifications specified in the harmonized European standards. For some products this will be done by declaration of the manufacturer. For other products this will need involvment of independent third-party notified bodies and/or notified laboratories. Eurofins Group operates a number of notified bodies for construction products.
In the near future there will occur some changes for CE marking of construction products with impact on indoor air quality by including criteria and classes for emissions of volatile dangerous substances, and/or by including criteria for the impact on environmental quality in terms of release of dangerous substances into water and soil.
More information on what you need to do for distributing, purchasing or using construction products in the European Union is available from a specialized website of the European Commission.
Further Information
Please read more on
- CE Marking for construction products
- Notified bodies operated by Eurofins
- VOC emissions under Construction Products Directive
Services
The Eurofins laboratories and notified bodies can help you finding your way through conformity declaration, certification and CE marking, and support with related testing.
Important note:
A manufacturer can select a notified body freely and is not restricted to notified bodies in his own country.
Eurofins Product Testing A/S is involved in the development and validation of a harmonized testing method for emissions of volatile substances into indoor air in CEN Technical Committee TC 351, Working Group WG 2. This allows to use the expertise of the world-wide largest VOC emissions testing laboratory also for CE marking as soon as the respective product standards have been released by CEN.
Contacts
Interior products:
Please see here contact information of Eurofins VOC testing laboratories in Europe, USA and China:
www.eurofins.com/voc-contacts.
Order forms and testing request forms are available for free download here.
Noise reduction products, doors, walls, blinds, shutters, and more:
Eurofins Modulo Uno, Via Cuorgnè, 21 - 10156 Torino - Italy +39 011 22 22 225
- Sales: info@modulouno.it
Stones and cement:
Eurofins LEM, 20 rue du Kochersberg - 67701 Saverne Cedex - France - +33 (0) 3 88 91 19 11
General contact:
Please send an email to producttesting@eurofins.com.
Construction products are intermediate products, which are to be incorporated in construction works (notably buildings, but also roads, bridges etc.). They encompass a wide range, from simple bricks or cement to very complex glass- or polymer-based structures, reaching all the way to complete facades. This whole multitude has necessitated more than 500 different standards, expected to be brought about for various families of these products.
When compared to other products, the cross-border trade on construction products within the Internal Market has traditionally not been as commonplace. National markets have often obstacles preventing foreign products from being efficiently commercialized. Therefore, as one of the first efforts of such Community-wide harmonisation, the Council adopted in 1988 the Construction Products Directive(the CPD).
The application of the CPD has confirmed the need of a harmonised legislative framework to consolidate the Internal Market in this field. However, some of the concepts used would have required clarifications and the whole structure of the CPD could be simplified. All this would obviously increase the credibility of the whole system, comprising standards, organisational structures and market surveillance. For these objectives, the Commission has recently adopted its proposal 
for a Construction Products Regulation (the CPR), to replace the CPD.
The particular nature of construction products, predominantly intended to be used by professionals (constructors, architects, civil engineers) has also brought along a need to differentiate the regulatory structure and the role of standards from the general horizontal rules of the Internal Market Package for Goods. Also the meaning of the CE marking in this context is specific: it attests that the information accompanying the product has been attained in accordance with the methods specified in the standards.
The objective of the CPD (and the CPR alike) is thus not to define the safety of construction products, but to ensure that reliable information is presented in relation to their performance. This is achieved by providing, mainly in standards, a common technical language, to be used not only by manufacturers, but also by public authorities when defining their requirements on construction works, directly or indirectly influencing the demands placed on the products to be used in them.