G/TBT/N/FRA/209  
27 May 2021 
(21-4403) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original:  French  
 
  
NOTIFICATION  
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6.  
 
1. Notifying Member : FRANCE  
If applicable, name of local government involved (Articles 3.2 and 7.2):  
2. Agency responsible:  
Ministère de la transition écologique  (Ministry for Ecological Transition)  
Direction générale de l'aménagement, du logement et de la nature (Directorate -General 
for Planning, Housing and Nature)  
Direction de l'habitat, de l'urbanisme et des paysages  (Housing, Urban Planni ng and 
Landscape Department)  
Sous-direction de la qualité de la construction  (Construction Quality Unit)  
Bureau de la performance environnementale du bâtiment et de l'animation territoriale  
(Office for the Environmental Performance of Buildings and Territorial Coordination)  
 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above:  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [X], 2.10.1 [ ], 5.6.2 [ ], 5.7.1 [ ], other:  
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff 
heading . ICS numbers may be provided in add ition, where applicable) : - 
Construction products ; - Decoration products ; - Electrical, electronic and environmental 
engineering equipment.  
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document : Arrêté relatif à 
la vérification par tierce par tie indépendante des déclarations environnementales des 
produits destinés à un usage dans les ouvrages de bâtiment et des déclarations 
environnementales des produits utilisées pour le calcul de la performance 
environnementale des bâtiments  (Order on indepe ndent third -party verification of 
environmental declarations for products intended for use in construction works and 
environmental declarations for products used to calculate the environmental performance 
of buildings) (9 page(s), in French)  
6. Description of content : The Order on the independent third -party verification of 
environmental declarations for products intended for use in construction works and 
environmental declarations for products used to calculate the environmental performance 
of buildings refers specifically to:  
- The content of the agreement between the Minister responsible for construction and a 
legal person representing an environmental declaration programme, and specifies the 
means used by the legal person to ensure certain req uirements;  
- The requirement for environmental declaration programmes to issue a certificate of 
recognition of proficiency to independent third parties (auditors) whose knowledge and 
skills they have recognised;  G/TBT/N/FRA/209  
- 2 - 
  - The requirement for environmental declarat ion programmes to carry out checks on the 
quality of environmental declarations and on the independence of auditors;  
- The content of the annual report that is to be provided by environmental declaration 
programmes to the Minister responsible for construction;  
- The terms and conditions for requesting the agreement of an environmental declaration 
programme with the Minist er responsible for construction.  
This Order replaces existing provisions of an Order published in 2015 . The relevant 
provisions are specified in the new Order.  
7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where 
applicable : By signin g the Paris Agreement in 2015, France made a firm commitment to 
the fight against climate change . This ambition was reaffirmed in the energy -climate law, 
which provides for the achievement of carbon neutrality by 2050 ; improving the energy 
and environmenta l performance of new buildings is an important tool for the fulfilment of 
this objective . Buildings, because of their energy consumption and also because of the 
way we build them, account for a significant part of greenhouse gas emissions in France . 
The 20 20 environmental regulations (RE2020) will accelerate the decarbonization of this 
sector by impacting the construction phase, which, for a new, efficient building, accounts 
for between 60% and 90% of its total carbon impact . With the RE2020, the regulatory  
assessment of the environmental performance of new buildings requires the use of 
environmental declarations (issued by manufacturers) for carrying out life -cycle analyses 
and analyses of default environmental data and services -related environmental data 
made available by the State . Default environmental data are data used in the absence of 
an environmental declaration for the construction or decoration product, or for the 
equipment chosen, to improve the completeness of life -cycle analyses . Article 178 of the 
ELAN Act on the development of housing, planning and digital technology (codified in 
article L. 111 -9-2 of the Building and Housing Code) provides that a State Council decree 
shall define : (1) For construction products and equipment, how to calculate a nd formalize 
the information necessary for the environmental assessment of new buildings using a life -
cycle approach ; (2) Obligations to make such information available to the public ; and (3) 
Obligations of competence and the guarantee of independence and impartiality of the 
persons verifying this information . The requirements of this State Council decree will be 
incorporated into two Orders ; Protection of the environment.  
8. Relevant documents:  
- Code de la construction et de l'habitation , in particular Articles L. 111 -9 and L. 111 -9-2 
(from section 178 of the Loi ELAN portant sur l'évolution du logement, de l'aménagement 
et du numérique ) 
- Code de la consommation , in particular Articles L. 412 -1 and R. 412 -49 to R. 412 -57 
9. Proposed date of adoption : 1 January 2 022 
Proposed date of entry into force : 1 January 2 022 
10. Final date for comments : 60 days from the date of notification  
11. Texts available from:  National enquiry point [ ] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers and email and website addresses, if available, of other body:  
Ministères économiques et financiers  
Direction générale des entreprises  
SQUALPI  
Bât. Sieyès -Teledoc 151  
61, Bd Vincent Auriol  
75703 PARIS Cedex 13  
d9834.france@finances.gouv.fr  
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2021/TBT/FRA/21_3692_00_f.pdf