CONSTRUCTION FIXINGS
CPR: One year later
Barbara Sorgato, secretary-general of the European Consortium of Anchor Producers (ECAP), reflects on the first anniversary of the implementation of the Construction Products Regulation.
Products Regulation seems to have suffered from the 2014 weird European climatic conditions. Things were frozen for many months, and, after one year, the CPR crop is small and grows slowly. Let’s see where we are, and why. The CPR entered into force on 1st
I July 2013 to ensure reliable
information on construction products in relation to their performances. This means that since 1st
July 2013 manufacturers
have provided information through the DoP – the Declaration of Performance of their products. The information comes from CEN standards and EOTA European Technical Assessments, which are there to provide a common European technical language. The users (architects, engineers, constructors…) shall use the DoP as a tool, when selecting or specifying their products. Member States shall establish information points to help European citizens with the implementation of the CPR in their country. And, of course, Member States shall educate their citizens about the CPR, to make them aware of the CPR obligations and legal implications, while the market surveillance and enforcement bodies shall check that everything is fine and nobody tries to cheat, all across Europe.
“…manufacturers and customers experienced a confusing and unclear situation for months.”
t hasn’t been a good season for tomatoes in Italy this year. We have been waiting for summer so long, and we somehow still are, even though autumn is coming. I have the same feeling for the CPR: The Construction
The implementation of the CPR, though, was not ready on 1st July 2013. The European Commission has adopted
Implementing and Delegated Regulations (the mandatory legal acts to implement or to complement the CPR) months after the CPR had already entered into force. Example of late adopted acts are:
• A regulation on e-supply of the Declaration of Performance (DoP) (i.e. providing performance product information on a website) that entered into force in February 2014 (EU 157/2014).
• A regulation concerning the Declaration of Performance (DoP) model (e.g. to provide more flexibility and clarity in the DoP format) that entered into force in May 2014 (EU 574/2014).
• A regulation on the format of the European Technical Assessment (ETA) that was published in October 2013 (EU 1062/2013).
Without all these legal instruments, manufacturers and
customers experienced a confusing and unclear situation for months. Questions like: ‘How must I draft a DoP?’; ‘Am I allowed to put the DoP on my website?’; ‘When can I have an ETA under the CPR?’ remained unsolved for months. Product Contact Points, which are offices where citizens can
get information on rules and regulations on construction products, were not created at the beginning, and were (and sometimes are) not able to give exhaustive information, either because there actually was no information or because gathering information on single products in the construction sector implies great in-depth analysis, which is difficult for non-specialised people. Nor have things been easy for standardisation. CEN standards
are assessed to the CPR progressively, so that changes are not very evident for the final user. EOTA, instead, had to face a major process of change since the beginning, and this also brings confusion in the market. The ETA format has only been defined since October 2013, so
no ETAssessments were issued for months. Then, until June 2014 no CE marking was possible, due to a legal problem caused by the CPR. And, after more than one year, no European Assessment Document – which serves as a basis for ETAssessments – has received the green light from the
80 Fastener + Fixing Magazine • Issue 89 September 2014
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