Two weeks ago, the European Commission has published two documents that amend the European Union Construction Products Regulation. These documents were already adopted back in February 2014. One amendment (Commission Regulation 568/2014 of 27 May 2014) is regarding the assessment and verification of constancy of performance of construction products. The second amendment (Commission Regulation 574/2014 of 28 May 2014) introduces changes to the Declaration of Performance. The changes are quite significant. Let’s have a look.
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Changes Introduced By Regulation 568/2014[/custom_headline]
Commission Regulation 568/2014 adds Clause 1.6 to Annex V of the Construction Products Regulation. This clause regulates that in case a European Technical Approval (ETA) has been issued for a construction product, no separate assessment needs to be done by the Notified Body under systems 1+, 1 and 3, or by the manufacturer under systems 2+ and 4. The reason is because the European Commission considers that in the framework of the ETA an assessment of the performance of the characteristics has already been performed. The Commission writes: *"Additional subsequent controls of the correctness of this assessment process would not bring about any added value, but only generate unnecessary costs for manufacturers."*
Regulation 568 also replaces the term "noise absorption" in section 3 of Annex V of the CPR by "acoustic performance". This is considered a more accurate description of the essential characteristics to be assessed and more in line with terminology in the harmonised standards.
[custom_headline type=”left” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”false”]Changes Introduced By Regulation 574/2014[/custom_headline]
First, Regulation 574 adds to Annex III of the CPR instructions on the way the Declaration of Performance needs to be drawn up. This should greatly help manufacturers to understand what information is expected from them.
Also, now it is not longer required to include the type, batch or serial number or any other element allowing identification of the construction product, as mentioned in article 11 (4).
In general, there is a less strict form of providing information on the Declaration of Performance. For example, the specific table required for declaring the performance of the various characteristics has been removed. That gives the manufacturers a bit more flexibility. Also, when identifying the Notified Body that has been involved in the conformity assessment, it is not longer required to specifically list all the tests, certificates, calculations or assessments. The European Commission considers: *"The manufacturers should be allowed some flexibility for drawing up declarations of performance as long as they provide, in a clear and coherent manner, the essential information"*.
Manufacturers will have the right to continue using certificates and other documents which were issued by Notified Bodies in accordance with Annex V to Regulation (EU) No 305/2011 before the entry into force of these Regulations.
The texts of both the Commission Regulations mentioned in this post are included in the CE Library on this website.
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