A4-0350/97

Resolution on the Commission report on the construction-products directive (COM(96)0202 - C4-0636/96))

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Commission report (COM(96)0202 - C4-0636/96),

- having regard to Article 2 of the EC Treaty, which requires the Community to promote throughout the Community the respect of the the environment, and to raise the standard of living and quality of life,

- having regard to Article 3(c) of the EC Treaty, which requires the Community to create an internal market where obstacles to the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital as between Member States are abolished,

- having regard to Article 102a of the EC Treaty, which requires the Member States and the Community to act in accordance with the principle of an open market economy with free competition,

- having regard to the first paragraph of Article 130 of the EC Treaty, which requires the Community and the Member States to ensure that the conditions necessary for the competitiveness of the Community's industry exist,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy (A4-0350/97),

A. whereas the implementation of Council Directive 89/106/EEC of 21 December 1988 on the approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to construction products ((OJ L 40, 11.2.1989, p.12.)) leaves a great deal to be desired,

B. whereas the European internal market has not yet been adequately established in the construction markets,

C. whereas the construction-products directive concerns a significant proportion of the business sector in the Community, earning almost 10% of the Community's total gross national product,

D. whereas Article 23 of the construction-products directive required a report on its operation to be submitted by 31 December 1993, but this failed to materialize,

E. whereas there are still no construction products that meet harmonized European standards because such standards do not yet exist,

F. whereas the standardization mandates issued to CEN and CENELEC for certain families of construction products have still not led to the adoption of a single standard,

G. whereas under the construction-products directive standardization mandates are to be confined to essential requirements,

H. whereas European technical approval is an alternative to harmonized standards in the case of innovative construction products,

I. whereas only some of the implementing decisions and mandates to the European standardization institutions have been adopted,

J. whereas the group of experts on legislative and administrative simplification (Molitor Group) has advocated the early implementation of the directive and thus the removal of obstacles to free trade in construction products,

K. whereas it has to be ensured that in this process high health and safety standards are maintained,

L. whereas the rejection of construction products in the country of destination because of unrecognized checks in the country of origin is a major obstacle to achieving free trade in construction products,

M. whereas a product that is manufactured and marketed in one Member State in accordance with its legislation may be marketed in any other Member State of the European Union, as long as no evidence is produced by the latter that important health, safety, and environmental concerns are at stake,

N. whereas the standardization of construction products involves complex technical coordination,

O. whereas the Member States have hitherto been unwilling to play a sufficiently active part in the harmonization of construction products,

P. whereas a political commitment to the more rapid and efficient implementation of the construction-products directive is needed if the adoption of harmonized standards is not to be further delayed,

Q. whereas an enormous volume of construction material is wasted and whereas certain Member States of the European Union have started programmes to re- use and recycle waste from construction material,

R. whereas quality and safety in construction are important concerns of European interest,

S. whereas technological progress with respect to construction products and construction works can make a major contribution to fire prevention, hygiene, environmental protection, noise abatement, heat insulation and energy conservation,

T. whereas it is better for technical standards governing construction products to be drawn up by independent standardization institutions at European level than set out in European Union directives,

1. Notes that in its report the Commission admits to major delays in the implementation of the 1988 construction-products directive;

2. Criticizes the failure of the work on the implementation of the construction-products directive to produce initial results until five years after the directive was adopted;

3. Notes that discernible progress has been made since the report was submitted and welcomes the adoption of several more standardization mandates in recent months, since the European Parliament began to consider the Commission's report;

4. Calls on the Commission to do everything in its power to reduce appreciably the period of at least five years it forecasts for the completion of standards relating to many construction products and to agree with the European standardization institutions on clear timetables for the establishment of standards;

5. Calls on the Commission to issue the standardization mandates and take the implementing decisions relating to the outstanding, larger proportion of construction products by mid-1998 at the latest, and urges that the drawing up of the mandates for the European standardization institutions take less time than the adoption of a separate directive for each product family;

6. Calls on the Comission to ensure that environmental and consumers´ interests have a voice in the EU standardization institutes wherever appropriate;

7. Calls on the Member States to cooperate in the Standing Committee on construction products more readily and with a greater will to compromise, and sees their obstructive attitude as one of the main causes of the delay in the implementation of the construction-products directive;

8. Calls on the standardization bodies to accelerate the adoption of standards and to close the gap between their own priorities and the standardization mandates, and takes the view that the European standardization bodies must be required to recognize specific priorities of the standardization mandates and specific timetables for their implementation;

9. Proposes that, when the standardization mandate is issued, the Commission should at the same time enter into an agreement which imposes penalties if the deadline for the completion of a standard is not observed and, conversely, provides for a bonus if CEN completes a standard before the deadline;

10. Calls for a special Commission report on the cooperation between the Member States in the Standing Committee on construction products and the European standardization institutions;

11. Does not share the Commission's opinion that the results so far achieved have been 'positive and encouraging', and calls for the work on the application of the directives and the clarification of outstanding questions to be speeded up;

12. Calls in particular for an immediate end to the experts' mutual obstructiveness with regard to the approval of common test procedures for assessing the behaviour of construction products when exposed to fire;

13. Notes that there are widespread alternatives for every construction product containing chrysotile asbestos; regrets that even now chrysotile asbestos is still being used in construction products in some Member States; notes that scientific proof exists of the equal state of hazardous effect with the two other banned forms; calls on the Commission to follow up the unilateral ban on chrysotile asbestos by seven Member States (with others about to follow) in immediately taking the technical steps to ban chrysotile asbestos (through a technical directive) as a base for construction products, alongside its ban in other industrial areas across the EU;

14. Calls on the Commission, before the end of 1999, to draft a Directive to enhance and promote the re-use and recycling of construction waste, including a proposal for clear labelling of components used in construction products;

15. Welcomes the fact that the first results - Codes EC1 and EC2 - in the establishment of Eurocodes, which were transferred to CEN in 1989 after ten years of unsuccessful work in the Commission, have now been achieved on a voluntary basis outside the framework of the construction-products directive;

16. Calls on the Member States to take account of the Eurocodes in their national provisions;

17. Is particularly critical of the lack of progress in the mutual recognition of test procedures for construction products, for which the Member States' obstructiveness is to blame, and calls on the Member States to commit themselves to systematically facilitating the mutual recognition of test procedures, wherever no major health, safety or environmental concerns are at stake;

18. Endorses the Commission's proposals for changes adapted to needs in applying the directive through simplification of the decision-making procedures and through the implementation of the directive with account taken of the new approach and for the concentration of work on the essential harmonized standards;

19. Calls for the emerging tendency to overregulate and impose excessive burdens on the manufacturers and users of construction products to be halted and for the implementation of the construction-products directive to be reviewed in the context of SLIM;

20. Calls on the Member States to forgo a multitude of detailed rules in the implementing provisions;

21. Calls on the European Committee for Standardization to become more heavily involved in the actual establishment of a programme for the development of harmonized standards which secure a high level of safety and environmental protection;

22. Calls on the Commission to submit at the end of 1998 an up-to-date report on the state of the implementation of the construction-products directive;

23. Regrets that after more than eight years of implementation the new approach adopted in the construction-products directive has still not made it possible for the industry to use the CE logo for construction products;

24. Maintains that one of the reasons for there being no free trade in construction products is that Article 16 of the construction-products directive is misconstrued, and takes the view that there is no substantial incompatibility between Article 16 of the construction-products directive and the application of the principle of mutual recognition pursuant to the ruling of the European Court of Justice;

25. Hopes that the construction-products directive will still be implemented, thus enabling the internal market to be completed in an important sphere;

26. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the parliaments of the Member States.