In the Annex 3 of the Commission Work Programme for 2015, the European Commission (EC) announced its intention to carry out a fitness check on the construction sector. To this end, the EC launched two supporting studies to assess the impacts of EU legislation on the construction sector.
The first supporting study is being conducted by the Italian consultancy company Economisti Associati. It started in May 2015 and aims at estimating the costs and benefits of EU legislation in two policy areas: internal market and energy efficiency. It is focused on construction of buildings (no infrastructure) and construction products and construction-related professional services. The study will only look at EU legislation in force between 2004 and 2014. The list of proposed legislation for further analysis include: Construction Products Regulation, Energy Efficiency Directive, Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, Ecodesign Directive and Energy Labelling Directive. With regards to the Construction Products Regulation, the study will look at the administrative costs/savings linked to the (1) provision of Declarations of Performance (DoPs) to customers and (2) application of CE marking on construction products.
The second supporting study will start in December 2015 and focus on Environment, Health and Safety EU legislation.
At a Construction Products Europe (CPE) workshop on 12 November on this topic, Ms Arantxa Hernandez (DG GROW Unit C1 - Clean Technologies and Products) indicated that some stakeholders will be interviewed and a public consultation will soon be launched. The two final reports are expected in summer 2016.
