Brussels, 11/07/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Cement Association welcomed the adoption by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) of a European standard for common cements, which will be applied in 19 countries (the 15 EU Member States, the Czech Republic, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland). The cement industry stresses that this is the first time a standard has been adopted in the EU directive on building materials. They trust that the European Commission will publish this standard by the end of the year in order to strengthen the single market for building materials. Twenty-seven kinds of common cements have so far been produced in the 19 countries concerned. Cement consumption was around 194 million tonnes in 1999.