Brussels, 20/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - In the context of its “better regulation” initiative (leading to scrutiny of around 200 different legislative texts), the European Commission has opened public consultation on amendments to be made to the 1998 “construction products” directive ion order to make it “more cost efficient and easier to understand for enterprises and authorities”, a press release states. The Commissioner responsible for enterprise and industry policy, Günter Verheugen, explains: “There has been much justified criticism of this directive. This is why we identified the construction directive as a priority in our effort to cut red tape and over-regulation. This consultation will provide an important opportunity for enterprises both big and small, providers of professional services such as designers, as well as assessment bodies and public authorities to give their views on how to simply and reform this legislation”.
The press release recalls that the term “'construction products” covers “more than 40 families of products like doors, thermal insulation products, cement, roofing products or façades representing more than 3% of the total European GDP”. According to the same press release, the directive only puts a bigger burden on companies in administrative costs and can cause “real obstacles to free movement” because Member States often, in addition to the technical specifications already set out in the text, impose additional requirements for implementation on their national markets. The questions by those concerned are: How can administrative costs and burden be reduced, in particular for SMEs? - How can more flexibility be introduced in the formulation and use of technical specifications? - How can certification rules be harmonised? How can implementation obstacles that so far have hampered the creation of a full internal market for construction products, be eliminated? After this initial consultation, the Commission's services will prepare a text with a view to a new proposal to be the subject of an impact assessment and a more detailed consultation. (The consultation is accessible on the following site: http: //europa.eu.int/yourvoice and http: //europa.eu.int/enterprise/construction/index.htm).