Keeping a cool head helps

Insecurity among the people involved – that is the result when a familiar system is replaced by a new one. And this very process is now being observed with replacement of the Construction Products Directive (Council Directive 89/106/EEC) by the Construction Products Regulation (EU) No. 305/2011 within the European Union. The new regulation stipulates conditions for the marketing of construction products and reformulates a number of the requirements concerned. In addition, it redefines in part the procedure required before a product can be placed on the market – the notified bodies must again be accredited to enable them to issue approval certificates for product marketing. Numerous workshops and articles by experts are now addressing this situation in an attempt to explain the details of the changes. Unfortunately, it cannot be entirely ruled out that vested interests will play a role here. One
example is when notified bodies emphasize their own competence and call into doubt that of their competitors, with approaches such as the following: Dear businessman, the others will not be able to meet the requirements for accreditation. Just change over to us as a new customer and be on the safe side. In such a situation keeping a cool head helps. Precasters are well advised to talk about the imminent changes with the notified body that has competently served their company for many years. Why should they no longer be able to do so in the future? There are many offices that want to apply for an accreditation, and some of them have already been approved. The NANDO database of the EU Commission (http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newapproach/nando/) will continue to provide information on which offices are officially notified for which activities.

Yours Christian Jahn