Pursuant to the procedure laid down in Cabinet Regulation No. 156 of 25 March 2015 “Procedure for the Surveillance of the Market of Construction Products”, the Consumer Rights Protection Centre shall carry out the surveillance of the market of construction products, verifying the conformity of construction products to the requirements determined in regulatory enactments for the relevant construction products and to the performance declared by the manufacturer. The CRPC supervises the market of construction products in accordance with the Construction Products Regulation and Regulation (EC) No. 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 setting out the requirements for accreditation and market surveillance relating to the marketing of products.
In order to carry out the surveillance of the market of construction products, the CRPC has the right:
- to request and receive free of charge information and documents (including technical documentation, declaration of performance, type inspection certificate, testing reports);
- to request and receive free of charge the samples of construction products, to perform sample inspections on the spot (pre-testing), including by opening the packing and performing testing of the sample, as well as to organise laboratory or other expert-examination, in order to determine the conformity of a construction product to the set requirements;
- to prohibit or discontinue the placing of construction products on the market or offering on the market for a period required to assess the conformity of construction products to the requirements of regulatory enactments or declared performance, performance of inspection and expert-examinations, as well as until taking the final decision;
- to provide instructions to the relevant entrepreneur, for the purposes of Article 2, Clause 18 of Regulation (EU) No. 305/2011 (hereinafter — entrepreneur), regarding the activities for the elimination of discrepancies after the performance of inspections;
- to visit construction sites; and
- to request and receive from notified bodies information related to the conformity assessment of the construction product to be examined.
Reduction of Administrative Workload in the Field of Testing
The Construction Products Regulation defines conditions for the use of simplified procedures for the assessment of the performance of construction products, in order to reduce as far as possible the cost of placing them on the market, without reducing the level of safety. The manufacturers using such simplified procedures should demonstrate appropriately the fulfilment of those conditions.
To further decrease the cost to micro-enterprises of placing construction products, which they have manufactured, on the market, it is necessary to provide for simplified procedures for the assessment of performance when the products in question do not imply significant safety concerns while complying with the applicable requirements, whatever the origin of those requirements. Enterprises applying those simplified procedures should, in addition, demonstrate that they qualify as micro-enterprises. Moreover, they should follow the applicable procedures for verification of constancy of performance provided for in the harmonised technical specifications for their products.
To avoid duplicating tests already carried out, a manufacturer of a construction product should be allowed to use the test results obtained by a third party.
Information Points of Construction Products
Member States have created Product Contact Points for Construction so that enterprises, and in particular SMEs, can gather reliable and precise information about the law in force in the Member-State where they intend to place or make available on the market their products.
In order to facilitate the free movement of goods, Product Contact Points for Construction should provide, free of charge, information about provisions aimed at fulfilling basic requirements for construction works applicable to the intended use of each construction product in the territory of each Member-State.
CE Marking
According to the Construction Product Regulation, CE marking shall be affixed to all construction products for which the manufacturer has drawn up a declaration of performance in accordance with this Regulation. If a declaration of performance has not been drawn up, the CE marking should not be affixed.
By affixing or having affixed the CE marking, manufacturers indicate that they take responsibility for the conformity of the construction product with the declared performance.
The CE marking is the only marking of conformity of the construction product with the declared performance and compliance with applicable requirements relating to the European Union harmonisation legislation.
Declaration of Performance
The placing on the market of construction products which are covered by a harmonised standard or for which a European Technical Assessment has been issued should be accompanied by a declaration of performance in relation to the essential characteristics of the construction product in accordance with the relevant harmonised technical specifications. The Regulation on Construction products determines the form of a declaration of performance (Annex No. 1).
Pursuant to the procedures laid down in the Construction Products Regulation, the list of harmonised standards is published in the EU Official Journal. The current version is the list of standards published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 10 October 2014.
The Construction Products Regulation determines the systems of assessment and verification of constancy of performance, as well as the tasks to be performed by manufacturers and notified bodies specified in Annex 2 and Annex 3.