The Regulation defines construction products as products placed on the market for incorporation in buildings and civil engineering works in a permanent manner. This includes for instance cement, windows, roof tiles or fire detection systems. The Regulation provides a common technical language to assess the performance of construction products. The responsibility for ensuring that a product has the correct characteristics for a particular application rests with the designers, contractors and local building authorities. Local authorities can carry out a critical role in the enforcement of product safety.

The Regulation aims to ensure that reliable information is available to professionals, public authorities, and consumers, so they can compare the performance of products from different manufacturers in different countries. To this end, the Regulation outlines basic requirements, harmonised standards and common specifications conferring a presumption of conformity (Art. 7-8). When a construction product is covered by a harmonised standard or conforms to a European Technical Assessment which has been issued for it, the manufacturer shall draw up a declaration of performance when such a product is placed on the market (Art. 13-16). All construction products for which the manufacturer has drawn up a declaration of performance should have the CE marking (Art. 17-19). The Regulation defines obligations of economic operators such as manufacturers, authorized operators, importers and distributors (Art. 20-30).

Benefits of the Construction Products Regulation for stakeholders include free circulation of construction products in the EU’s single market as products have to be tested only once according to a harmonised European standard or European Assessment Document. National authorities can set performance requirements using the harmonised European standard or European Assessment Document. Users of construction products can better define their performance demands. Market surveillance can rely on one common information structure. Benefits of the technical tools of the Construction Products Regulation include the Declaration of Performance, which delivers information on the performance of a product. The Assessment and Verification of Constancy of Performance is a system defining how products are assessed and how the constancy of the assessment results is controlled. There are also clearer roles for Notified Bodies and Technical Assessment Bodies.
 

More information on the Construction Products Regulation can be found here: https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/construction/construction-products-regulation-cpr_en.

A 2014 evaluation document provides insights into the implementation of the Sewage Sludge Directive: https://circabc.europa.eu/ui/group/636f928d-2669-41d3-83db-093e90ca93a2/library/54f672e7-4825-4436-9924-4e35efe1a3f8/details?download=true

Among other aspects, the evaluation document addressed the following points:

• summary of the evaluation findings on the EU level (effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence);
• summary of the progress towards achieving the objectives (and, where applicable, targets) set out in the Directive in various Member States, including insights into how some Member States implemented key provisions of the Directive;
• what are the costs and benefits associated with the implementation of the Directive in various Member States;
• good practices in terms of cost-effective implementation of the Directive identified.

• Date of document: 27/11/2024; Date of signature
• Date of effect: 07/01/2025; Entry into force Date pub. +20 See Art 96
• Date of effect: 07/01/2025; Application Partial application See Art 96
• Date of effect: 08/01/2026; Application See Art 96
• Date of effect: 08/01/2027; Application Partial application See Art 96
• Date of signature: 27/11/2024
• Deadline: 08/12/2026; See Art 92
• Deadline: 07/01/2030; See Art 89.2
• Deadline: 08/01/2030; At the latest See Art 95.2
• Deadline: 09/01/2031; See Art 95.4
• Deadline: 09/01/2033; At the latest See Art 93
• Date of end of validity: No end date