The European Commission recently published the outcome of its 2020 Public consultation on the Review of the Construction Products Regulation (CPR). It yielded some very interesting results on the ETA route to CE marking.
Generally speaking, stakeholders seem to be in favour of a continuation of the current legal framework, while welcoming targeted improvements that can be implemented in the short-term.
The wish for continuity becomes especially visible where it comes to the CEN and EOTA routes. Nearly 70% of all stakeholders that took part in the consultation felt that the current CEN standardisation procedure provides the best solution. The need for clear guidelines and streamlined procedures was most frequently highlighted in their comments.
As far as EOTA and the Technical Assessment Bodies are concerned, the results are even more unequivocal: 84 % of the respondents expressed themselves in favour of maintaining the current ETA route. When asked to give reasons, stakeholders stressed the importance of the ETA route for marketing non-standard construction products. Main concerns voiced by the consultation participants with regards to the alternative options presented by the EC services included legal uncertainty, liability issues as well as loss of transparency and harmonisation.
2020 public consultation outcome on EOTA and the Technical Assessment Bodies
Source: EC data for the public consultation on the review of the Construction Products Regulation - Data visualisation by EOTA
Find out more about EOTA’s stance, in EOTA's 2020 open letter on the CPR review.
Background information
The European Commission has started revising the CPR. In preparation for this exercise, the Commission services launched an extensive public consultation running from 4 September 2020 to 25 December 2020.