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ОБЩИЕ ПРОБЛЕМЫ СТРОИТЕЛЬНОЙ НАУКИ И ПРОИЗВОДСТВА. УНИФИКАЦИЯ И СТАНДАРТИЗАЦИЯ В СТРОИТЕЛЬСТВЕ
УДК 691 P. Spehl
SECO; Université libre de Bruxelles; Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées
FROM CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTS TO BUILDING WORKS: THE EUROPEAN INPUT
The paper gives an overview of the evolution of the construction sector within the European unification process and explains the reasons why this evolution happened, how it was organized and lived, and where it is leading. The links between the main stages of this process and the European legislation specific to the construction sector are presented, and the main prescriptions of the Construction Products Directive are reviewed. The need to express the characteristics of products in terms of performance is emphasized and data are given on the CEN program of harmonized product standards, test methods and calculation methods standards. The CEN standards on construction works such as the EUROCODES are also presented, its impact on existing regulatory systems is discussed and some conclusions are drawn on the added value of the European input to the construction sector.
Key words: technical harmonization, directive, European regulations, performance specifications, Eurocodes.
Introduction
The European Union is born from a step by step process designed by Jean MONNET and initiated by the famous declaration of Robert SCHUMAN speaking on behalf of the French Government on 9 May 1950:
"Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity. The coming together of the nations of Europe requires the elimination of the age-old opposition of France and Germany. Any action taken must in the first place concern these two countries. With this aim in view, the French Government proposes that action be taken immediately on one limited but decisive point. It proposes that Franco-German production of coal and steel as a whole be placed under a common High Authority, within the framework of an organization open to the participation of the other countries of Europe. The pooling of coal and steel production should immediately provide for the setting up of common foundations for economic development as a first step in the federation of Europe, and will change the destinies of those regions which have long been devoted to the manufacture of munitions ofwar, ofwhich they have been the most constant victims."
France and Germany, together with Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, started in 1951 by creating the European Coal and Steel Community, and later on the European Economic Community which is, by far, the most important achievement. Its purpose, defined by the Treaty of Rome of 1957, was to establish a customs union, based on "four freedoms": freedom of movement of goods, services, capital and people.
The economic growth over the years resulting from its implementation became so attractive that the European communities enlarged progressively to many new Member States. But the opening of national borders was not enough to get a "common market" of free trade. On the contrary, a proliferation of national technical standards increased the partitioning of markets, so that, in 1986, the Member States (12 at that time) signed the "Single Act" in order to adopt the measures needed to eliminate all barriers to trade and to create effectively a single unified market.
A "New Approach" to technical harmonization and standards was adopted in 1989, providing a framework to harmonize national regulations for industrial products, and to develop flexible and technology-neutral legislation, by moving from detailed descriptive specifications for individual products, to defining the performance-based "essential requirements" for types of products, thus promoting innovation and competitiveness.
This "New Approach" has been implemented for the construction sector in 1989 by the European Directive 89/106/EEC [1] called the "Construction Products Directive" (CPD).
The next major steps in the unification process have been the Maastricht Treaty (1992), which creates a European Union (EU) on both economic and monetary fields (from which the EURO is issued), and lastly the Lisbon Treaty (2009) which reinforces democracy in the European Union (now 27 Member States) by improving the co-decision-making process involving the 3 main EU institutions (the Council, the Commission and the Parliament).
Actually, the European legislation includes:
European regulations, which are entirely binding and directly applicable,
European directives, which are binding on Member States as to the result to be achieved, but leave to the respective national authorities to decide how the objectives set out in the directive are to be incorporated into their domestic legal system before a certain date, and
European decisions applying the European legislation, which are binding only on those to whom they are addressed.
It is to be noted that a new "Construction Products Regulation" (CPR) has been voted by the EU Parliament on 18 January 2011, and is now published [2], in order to revise and replace the CPD, and to upgrade its legal force.
Construction products
What is a construction product? For the purpose of the CPD, "construction product" means "any product which is produced for incorporation in a permanent manner in construction works, including both buildings and civil engineering works". Shortly, it is what enters into the work site.
The basic principle of the CPD was established in 1979 by a judgment of the European Court of Justice (the so-called "Cassis de Dijon" judgment [3]): a product sold lawfully in one Member State may not be prohibited in another Member State.
This principle of "mutual recognition" effectively reverses the burden of proof, by requiring a Member State, which does not want to accept such a product on its market, to demonstrate why compliance with the requirements of another Member State would not adequately protect its citizens.
Furthermore, the Court ruled that if there were European regulations, directives or decisions prescribing technical requirements for certain products, these exceed the national rules, and because the national rules give rise to trade restrictions, they would no longer be lawful when European technical requirements exist.
The CPD was drafted to prescribe such technical requirements for construction products, so that a product responding to its prescriptions cannot anymore be refused [4]:
Mandatory essential requirements are defined to ensure a high level of protection regarding health and safety, they must be worded in terms that can be uniformly enforced by Member States, and they must enable conformity assessment bodies to evaluate conformity of products and standardization bodies to develop standards to ensure, partly or completely, the fulfillment of those essential requirements.
Manufacturers are free to choose any appropriate technical solution that meets the essential requirements.
Products that comply with harmonized standards, references to which have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, are presumed to meet the corresponding essential requirements.
Appropriate conformity assessment procedures are defined, taking into account, among other things, the type of risk related to the products. Where appropriate, these procedures require the intervention of third party conformity assessment bodies, known as notified bodies (figure 1).
VERIFICATIONS SYSTEMS OF ASSESSMENT AND VERIFICATION (CPR - Annex V)
1+ 1 2 3 4
Declaration of the performance by the M (Manufacturer)
+ certificate of constancy of performance by 1MB (Notified Body) + FPC conformity certificate by NB + product type testing byNB
initial Type testing or calculation NB NB M NB M
Inspection of F PC NB NB NB - -
continuous F PC (factory production control) M M M M M
FPC surveillance NB NB NB - -
Testing of samples M M M - -
Audit testing of samples before placing on the EU market NB
Fig. 1. Сonformity assessment procedures for construction products
For any product that is not covered or not fully covered by a harmonized standard, the manufacturer may request alternatively for a European Technical Assessment (ETA), and a European Assessment Document shall be drawn up and adopted by the organization of Technical Assessment Bodies (TABs).
The CE Marking symbolizes the fact that the manufacturer has verified that the product conforms to all the harmonization provisions that apply to it and that the
product has been the subject of the applicable conformity assessment procedures. In a "declaration of conformity", the manufacturer presents the required information on the product and its characteristics, in the language of the Member State in which the product is to be used. Note that this "declaration of conformity", required from the manufacturer by the CPD, will be replaced according to the new CPR by a "declaration of performance of the essential characteristics of the construction product".
The obligation on Member States to take all appropriate enforcement measures, including market surveillance, to ensure that non-conforming products are withdrawn from the market.
Performance of construction works and products
When we speak of performance, we mean the properties of a construction work that have to do with the behaviour demanded of it during use so that it correctly fulfils its functions. These behaviours are determined using unified sets of scientific methods (testing, measurement, calculation and observation) regardless of the materials and processes used.
When specifying the performances of a building, rather than describing construction materials and processes in the specifications, we replace an "obligation of means" by an "obligation of results". Various constructive solutions may thus be compared on an equal footing, while freedom as large as possible is left to the design in order to encourage innovation.
A major step in the implementation of the performance concept in buildings has been accomplished at the joint RILEM-ASTM-CIB Symposium organized on 2-5 May 1972 in Philadelphia by the US National Bureau of Standards [5], where many pioneering researchers and developers such as George ATKINSON (UK), Oivind BIRKELAND (Norway), Gérard BLACHÈRE (France), John EBERHARD (USA) or Ingvar KARLEN (Sweden) gathered and shared their experiences.
Short afterwards, the author began his engineer's career within SECO [6] on an ambitious Belgian inter-industrial/construction research program in this field, partly financed by the Belgian State; under Raymond d'HAVÉ, former Director of SECO, he drafted the "Performance Guide for Buildings" published in 1980 [7], which presents the performance specifications, testing methods and calculation methods already available or developed at the time, and the international standard ISO 6241 "Performance standards in building - Principles for their preparation and factors to be considered" [8], in 1982, as technical secretary of a working group within the ISO Technical Committee 59 "Building construction" chaired by Gérard BLACHÈRE.
Both documents did inspire Raymond MOURAREAU of the European Commission, who drafted the CPD which states that the "harmonized standards " should be "expressed as far as possible in terms ofproduct performance", and which has been since 1989 the basis of the whole European Commission policy to unify the market in the construction sector.
Annex I of the CPD defines the six essential requirements regarding health and safety, which are applicable to construction works in order to fit for their intended use. This list may be compared to the standard list of user requirements from ISO 6241, where other aspects than health and safety are covered, and to Annex I of the new CPR, where a seventh requirement "Sustainable use of natural resources" has been added (figure 2).
ISO 6241 : 1984 Table 1: User requirements CPD : 1989 Annex I: Essential requirements CPR : 2011 Annex I: Basic requirements for construction works
1. Stability requirements 1. Mechanical resistance 1. Mechanical resistance
2. Fire safety requirements and stability and stability
3. Safety in use require- 2. Safety in case of fire 2. Safety in case of fire
ments 3. Hygiene, health and the 3. Hygiene, health and the
4. Tightness requirements environment environment
5. Hygrothermal require- 4. Safety in use 4. Safety and accessibility
ments 5. Protection against in use
6. Air purity requirements noise 5. Protection against noise
7. Acoustical requirements 6. Energy economy and 6. Energy economy and heat
8. Visual requirements heat retention retention
9. Tactile requirements 7. Sustainable use of natural
10 Dynamic requirements resources
11. Hygiene requirements
12. Requirements for the
suitability of spaces for
specific uses
13. Durability requirements
14. Economic requirements
Fig. 2. The essential requirements
In addition to the CPD, for each essential requirement, an "interpretative documents" defines qualitatively the performance characteristics to be required from the construction products in order that the construction works made of them will respond to the essential requirement concerned. And these performance characteristics which are needed for the end use of products are then defined quantitatively in harmonized product standards referring to performance testing standards, calculation standards and classification standards.
It is to be noted that the jurisdiction of the European Union covers construction products, according to the CPD, but not construction works which remain in the jurisdiction of the Member States and their regulatory authorities (figure 3).
Fig. 3. National and European jurisdictions according to the CPD
CEN standards
The European Committee for Standardization (CEN - Comité Européen de Nor-
malisation) gathers the national standardization organizations from the 27 EU Member States (figure 4), one candidate to EU (Croatia) and the 3 members of EFTA (European Free Trade Association: Iceland, Norway and Switzerland). The standardization organizations of 20 other States are affiliated or partners and may take part to the CEN Technical Committee meetings, but without voting (figure 5).
Fig. 4. CEN members, affiliates and partners (2008)
31 CEN members VOTES
France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom 29 (x4)
Poland, Spain 27 (x2)
Romania 14 (x1)
Netherlands 13 (x1)
Belgium, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Portugal 12 (x5)
Austria, Bulgaria, Sweden, Switzerland (EFTA) 10 (x4)
Croatia (EU candidate), Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Norway (EFTA), Slovakia 7 (x7)
Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Slovenia 4 (x5)
Iceland (EFTA, EU candidate), Malta 3 (x2)
CEN TOTAL 372
CEN majority (71 %) 265
EU TOTAL (without EFTA) 345
EU majority (votes under CE mandate) (73,9 %) 255
No votes : 19 CEN Affiliates : Albania, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Libya, Belarus, Egypt, Macedonia, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine.
1 CEN Partner Standardization Body : Australia.
Fig. 5. Weighted voting on CEN standards (2011)
Although a weighted vote is used to approve standards (figure 5), the aim of the works within working groups and project teams preparing them is to reach a "consensus", which is defined by ISO [9] as "a general agreement, characterized by the absence of sustained opposition to substantial issues by any important part of the concerned interests and by a process that involves seeking to take into account the views of all parties concerned and to reconcile any conflicting arguments (note: consensus does not necessarily imply unanimity)". The good practice of this principle proves to be the best way to obtain standards widely accepted.
CEN has been mandated under the CPD by the EU Commission to draft about 600 harmonized product standards (hEN) and about 1500 standards on performance test methods. This vast standardization program of more than 20 years has been realized through 55 standardization mandates from the European Commission, which have involved more than 80 CEN Technical Committees. This makes from the construction sector, by far, the largest sector in CEN (figure 6).
Fig. 6. Present state of the CEN standards for the construction sector (2010)
Figure 7 summarizes how the CPD is managed and how the responsibilities are shared between public authorities - EC (EU Commission), SCC (Standing Committee for Construction), MS (Member States) — and private bodies - Producers, CEN, NB (Notified Bodies) and the market.
In addition to the products standards, CEN has received standardization mandates from the EU Commission regarding construction works and general aspects of safety i.a.:
Sustainability: "Development of horizontal standardized methods for the assessment of the integrated environmental performance of buildings" (EC mandate 350).
Energy performance: "Elaboration and adoption of standards for a methodology calculating the integrated energy performance of buildings in accordance with the EPBD (Energy Performance of Buildings Directive [10])" (EC mandate 343).
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Fig. 7. The CPD management
Dangerous substances: "Emission to indoor air and release to soil, surface water and ground water" (EC mandate 366). It is to be noted that, in the new CPR, the "declaration of performance" required for every construction product will have to include the hazardous substance information required by the REACH regulation [11].
Fire safety: "Evaluation of construction products in respect of their reaction to fire" (EU mandate 88), "Evaluation of construction products and elements in respect of their resistance to fire" (EU mandate 117) and "Fire alarm/detection, fixed fire-fighting, fire and smoke control and explosion suppression products" (mandate 109).
EUROCODES: "Agreement between the EC and CENconcerning the work on Eurocodes for the design of building and civil engineering works" (BC/CEN/03/89).
EUROCODES
In this last case, the EC took already the initiative herself in 1975 to establish a set of harmonized technical rules with the aim to eliminate technical obstacles to trade, which led to the first generation of European codes in the 1980s. This work was transferred in 1989 to CEN Technical Committee 250 "Structural EUROCODES" in order to provide them with a future status of European Standard (EN).
The second generation of EUROCODES were published in 1999 as 62 pre-standard (ENVs) and after a period of experimental use in the Member States, on basis of the comments received, they have been converted into 58 European Standards (ENs) published in 2010 (figure 8). There are still "Nationally Determined Parameters" (NDPs) for which the ENs are giving recommendations, but it is left to the National Standardization Bodies to publish National Annexes (NA) with national choices for each of them which may differ from the EN recommendations. It is to be noted that, even if separated EUROCODES are devoted to specific structural materials (concrete, steel, timber, masonry, etc.), these have been drafted in order to correspond to the same safety level, and they may therefore be considered as a whole set of performance-based calculation methods.
Fig. 8. The EUROCODES
A third generation will be prepared in 2011—2015 (EC mandate 466), extending to other structural materials, such as glass, fibers reinforced polymers or tensile membranes, and with the aim, strongly supported by the EC, to remove all the differences between the NAs, except those which may be justified by natural causes (climatology, seismology, etc.) or those which express overall performances of construction works, such as partial safety factors, which remain within the jurisdiction of the Member States.
Regulations
The first construction regulation in history was the Hammurabi code dating from 1760 BC (figure 9): it covers safety of persons as well as safety of goods, and fixes already performance-based requirements, together with (rather extreme!) penalties in case of failure.
Code of Hammurabi (1760 BC) Civil Code of Napoleon (1804)
• "If a builder build a house for some one, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built fall in and kill its owner, then that builder ¡holt be put to death." (Art. 229) • "If It ruin goods, he shall make compensation for all that has been ruined, and in as much as he did not construct properly this house which he built and it fell, he shall re-erect the house from his own means." (Art. 232) "if the edifice, built at a set price, perish in whole or in port by defect in its construction, evert by defect in the foundation, the architect and the contractor are responsible therefor for ten years." (Art. 1792)
Fig. 9. Examples of construction safety regulations
Since 1804, article 1792 of the Civil Code established by Napoleon, which is still the basis of the legal systems of several European countries, fixes the performance requirement as a 10 years liability of architects and contractors, but leaves to the Courts of Justice, not only the fixing of the penalties, but, before that, the evaluation of the responsibilities on basis of the "good practice" at the time of construction. Among the rules of good practice referred to in the Jurisprudence of the Courts, the EUROCODES will become, from now on, the dominating reference (but not the only one possible) for the stability and mechanical resistance of structures (figure 10).
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Source CIVIL CODE LAW
Technical JURISPRUDENCE REGULATIONS
requirements of the COURTS
Application a posteriori a priori
Standards Referenced Compulsory only
(e.g. good practice if imposed
Eurocodes) but not compulsory by regulation
Fig. 10. Applicability of standards (calculation methods, e.g. EUROCODES)
In Belgium for example, besides specific regulations on fire safety, dangerous goods and electrical installations, article 1792, as it is, is still the only general construction regulation, and this leaves an optimal freedom and a full responsibility to designers.
Other European countries have established more detailed Building Regulations by law, and these will have to be adapted in order to comply with the EUROCODES, which will then become compulsory in these countries.
The universal nature of the EUROCODES means that they can be completed with national regulations and local customs. Regulations exist because there are those who will do "any odd thing" and against whom society believes it should take precautions in the form of safeguards. Regulations are the expression of a culture at a given moment, and should represent the minimum consensus in the public interest. Standards are clearly very useful as a common reference tool for all interested parties. They must exist, but they should not in the least diminish the responsibility of the person who applies them, and it can be very dangerous to transform them into regulations, so that thought is dispensed with, and an attitude of "if it's in compliance, it's okay!" prevails.
Conclusion
It is to be emphasized that the standardization work on European level is bringing much more than the addition of national contributions: by gathering together the best expertise available throughout Europe on each specialized domain, new developments are possible which can't happen when these experts work separately in their country.
When starting a new project team of the European Coal and Steel Community, Jean MONNET used to say at the first meeting: "There are two categories of human beings : those who want to be someone, and those who want to do something". And he added: "If you are from the first category, there is no room here for you!". This "principle" speaks obviously to the mind of any engineer. And in his Memoirs [12], Jean MONNET further wrote: "Beyond the defense of national positions, something new and strong comes into living within the team : it's the European spirit which is the fruit of the work together and, above all, of the need to come to a common conclusion after the discussion".
References
1. 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. Official Journal of the European Union, L 40, 11 February 1989, p. 12.
2. Regulation (EU) No 305/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2011 laying down harmonized conditions for the marketing of construction products and repealing Council Directive 89/106/EEC. Official Journal of the European Union, L 88, 4 April 2011, p. 5.
3. Judgment of the Court of 20 February 1979, Case 120/78, European Court reports 1979, p. 00649.
4. www.bbri.be EU legislation, Construction Products Directive, CE Marking, Services.
5. Joint RILEM-ASTM-CIB Symposium "Performance Concept in Buildings". Proceedings, NBS SPECIAL PUBLICATION 361, 2 vol., 1972.
6. www.seco.be
7. R. d'Havé & P. Spehl. Guide des Performances du Bâtiment, Syndicat d'Etudes IC-IB. Brussels, 1980, 9 vol.
8. ISO 6241 "Performance Standards in Building — Principles for Their Preparation and Factors to Be Considered". Geneva, 1984.
9. ISO/IEC Guide 2. Standardization and Related Activities. General Vocabulary, ISO, Geneva, 2004.
10. Directive 2002/91/EC of 16 December 2002 on the energy performance of buildings, Official Journal of the European Union, L 001, 04/01/2003 p. 0065-0071.
11. Regulation (EC) no.1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH).
12. Jean Monnet. Memoirs. London, 1978.
Поступила в редакцию в декабре 2012 г.
About the author: Pierre Spehl — senior civil engineer, SECO, Rue d'Arlon, 53, B-1040, Brussels, Belgium; Honorary Professor, Université libre de Bruxelles, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 50, 1050, Brussels, Belgium; Honorary Professor, Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, 6-8 Avenue Blaise Pascal, Cité Descartes, 77455, Champs-sur-Marne Marne la Vallée cedex 2, France; pierrespehl@hotmail.com; +32 (0) 2 238-22-11.
For citation: Spehl P. From Construction Products to Building Works: the European Input. VestnikMGSU [Proceedings of Moscow State University of Civil Engineering]. 2013, no. 1, pp. 7—18.
П. Спель
Компания SECO, Бельгия
ОТ СТРОИТЕЛЬНОЙ ПРОДУКЦИИ К СТРОИТЕЛЬНЫМ РАБОТАМ: ЕВРОПЕЙСКИЙ ВКЛАД
Проанализирована эволюция строительной отрасли в рамках общеевропейского процесса унификации, разъяснены причины запуска данного эволюционного процесса, сущность его организации и функционирования, а также суть его направленности. Рассмотрены связи между основными этапами процесса эволюции и европейским законодательством в области строительства, а также проанализированы основные требования Директивы о строительной продукции. Особое
внимание уделяется необходимости установления зависимости между спецификацией строительной продукции и ее эксплуатационными качествами. Содержится информация о Программе Европейского комитета по стандартизации (СЕ^ гармонизированных стандартов на изделия, стандартных методов испытаний и расчетов. Кратко изложены стандарты CEN в части строительных работ (Евро-коды). Рассмотрено их влияние на действующую систему стандартов, а также изложены свои выводы относительно ценности вклада Европы в развитие строительной отрасли.
Ключевые слова: техническая гармонизация, Директива, европейское регулирование, спецификация эксплуатационных качеств, Еврокоды.
Об авторе: Пьер Спель — старший инженер, компания SECO, ул. д'Арлон, д. 53, B - 1040, Брюссель, Бельгия; почетный профессор, Свободный университет Брюсселя, авеню Франклина Рузвельта, д. 50, 1050, Брюссель, Бельгия; почетный профессор, Национальная школа мостов и автомобильных дорог, авеню Блеза Паскаля, д. 6-8, Ситэ Декарт, 77455, Шам-сюр-марн, ла Валле, Седе 2, Франция; pierrespehl@hotmail. com; +32 (0) 2 238-22-11.
Для цитирования: Spehl P. From Construction Products to Building Works: the European Input // Вестник МГСУ. 2013. № 1. С. 7—18.
