News & Events
Industry updates
The Commission delegated act on the classification of frost resistance performance for clay tiles under EN 1304 was cited on 17 August 2017 in the Official Journal of the European Union. The performance of clay tiles intended for external use, in relation to their essential characteristic frost resistance, shall be classified in accordance with the classification system as follows:
The 2017 TBE Congress will take place on 22-23 June in Nice, France will gather 100 executives from tiles and bricks companies and associations from all over Europe and will be co-organised by Tiles & Bricks Europe and FFTB, the French Federation of Roof Tiles & Bricks.
A programme will be organised for accompanying persons on both days.
In April Cerame-Unie joined industry leaders to urge fair Emissions Trading System (ETS) outcome of the inter-institutional trilogue on Post-2020 ETS reform. The Alliance of 17 energy intensive sectors published its recommendations entitled: “No trade off on Fairness”. It calls for ensuring that the sufficient free allowances are available to allocate all carbon leakage installations at the level of the benchmark and for rejecting any approach which aims at discriminating a few from other sectors exposed to carbon leakage risks, such as the “tiered Cross Sectoral Correction Factor (CSCF)”.
Click here to read the full document.
TBE, together with 124 associations, has signed the Joint Declaration for an ambitious EU industrial strategy. Many manufacturing sectors unite to appeal to the European Institutions and Member States for their support in more jobs and growth creation in Europe. The declaration calls on the European Commission to reaffirm its commitment to reaching the target of 20% of GDP from industry, to adopt an Action Plan to tackle the challenges that the industrial sectors are facing, and to commit to implement it in a timely manner and regularly report on progress. To read the full document please follow the link.
The European Commission published the new circular economy package to shift from a linear to a more circular economy. This more realistic package comprises an EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy with 54 measures covering the whole life cycle: from production and consumption to waste management. The package also includes a revised legislative proposal on waste which sets new targets to reduce waste. Given the inert nature of fired clay, most ceramic products can be recycled, recovered or reused after the end-of-life stage.
Cerame-Unie highlights the need of having a good system for collection, sorting and separation of waste. By doing this, the quality and quantity of materials available for recycling will improve drastically.
Due to the long lifespan of ceramic products and the fact that in some sectors over a third of the production is exported outside the EU, the quantity of secondary material available after the end-of-life stage is often insufficient. In addition, the chemical transformation of clay to ceramics does not allow for 100% closed loop recycling but provides a valuable input for open loop recycling. As a result, virgin material remains a requirement within the supply chain.
The first reading vote in the European Parliament ENVI Committee took place on 24 January 2017 and Cerame-Unie prepared voting recommendations.
Energy efficient construction and renovation contribute to people’s well-being and productivity, and help tackling today’s challenges: they create local jobs, contribute to reducing energy poverty and to the fight against climate change. The revision of the EPBD is the opportunity to continue and improve the legal framework for the promotion of energy efficient buildings, taking into account the learning from the last years.
The 2017 TBE Congress will take place on 22-23 June in Nice, France will gather 100 executives from tiles and bricks companies and associations from all over Europe and will be co-organised by Tiles & Bricks Europe and FFTB, the French Federation of Roof Tiles & Bricks.
On 29 Sept, ENVI discussed amendments tabled to MEP Duncan’s (ECR) draft report on ETS review.
MEP Dalli (S&D) replacing MEP Guteland (S&D), opened the debate by confirming that S&D is in favor of increasing the Linear Reduction Factor (LRF) at 2.4% and maintaining the 57% share of auction allowances. MEP Dalli also suggested the ratio should increase in the future: “ETS is a ‘polluter pays’ system and free allocation is only temporary exception to this rule”, she underlined.
MEP Belet (EPP) mentioned his group’s support to the EC proposal to set the LRF at 2.2%. He also proposed a 52% share of auction allowances in order to “give more manoeuvre” for free allowances. “We won’t give free allowances to everyone but to the 10% top performers”, he said.
As a next step, the amendments will by voted in ENVI on Dec 8th.
