Concrete perspective November 2013
Construction sector
Online information about construction products to save time and money
On 30 October, the European Commission proposed a supplement to the Construction Products Regulation, which offer the possibility to manufacturers of construction products to upload digital “declarations of performance” on their websites.
Currently, the Declaration of performance must be individually communicated to each customer by post or email. With this initiative, the EC aims at simplifying administration and reducing producer costs. Furthermore, the online availability of these declarations will enable faster communication through the supply chain and facilitate sales of construction products.
European Commission –Press Release on online DoP
European Commission – Construction Products Regulation
Live from the European Union
Access to financing survey
On 14 November, the European Commission and the European Central Bank released the outcome of the “Access to finance” survey. According the results of the survey, about one third of the SMEs did not manage to get the full financing they had planned and 15% of survey respondents saw access to finance as a major problem for their companies.
Surveyed SMEs believe that financing conditions worsened during 2013, especially concerning interest rates, collateral and required guarantees.
As a response, the European Commission launched a new Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs (COSME). Running between 2014 and 2020, COSME is the first ever Commission programme that is exclusively dedicated to supporting SMEs.
For further information on COSME, please check our October Newsletter or the provided links below.
European Commission – Press Release
COSME- Interview Commissioner Antonio Tajani (Enterprise & Industry)
COSME – WebpageEU to miss its 20% energy targets for 2020- what’s for the future!?
According to the latest report on national energy efficiency targets (statement issued by the Coalition for Energy Savings), the European Union will miss it 20% efficiency targets for 2020 due to the lack of engagement of Member States. Regrettably, the voluntary national targets are too low and don’t generate additional savings beyond the requirements of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED).
Consequently, with the fail of voluntary targets, the revision of the EED (in 2014) will probably lead to setting binding targets.
At the same time, it is important to understand what it means to miss the infamous 20% reduction target at EU level. In order to get a global picture of the current state of global warming, according to the September announcement of IPCC, global surface temperatures likely to exceed 1.5° C and pass beyond the threshold of 2°C. At already 2°C global warming,serious consequences will be experienced in terms of health, coastal flooding, food security, water stress and balance of the ecosystem. Also, a global warming of 2°C can set off irreversible changes to the above mentioned areas. This is to say that no further behaviour-change will attenuate or stop the catastrophic changes, when passing the tipping point, unknown for everybody. Being responsible and engaged to future should mean engagement of national authorities and industries to achieve EU 2020 objectives.
European Commission –SETIS Press Release
7th Environment Action Programme becoming law
On 20 November, the Council of the U and the European Commission signed into law the 7th Environmental Action Programme. The Programme will guide EU’s environment and climate policy for the next seven years; it identifies nine priority objectives for the period up to 2020, including protecting nature and strengthening ecological resilience; boosting sustainable, resource-efficient, low-carbon growth; and effectively addressing environment-related threats to health.
News in brief
National Award Winner Projects
Best Practice Award 2013 -UK
Emirates Arena, Glasgow, Scotland (Decomo UK and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome )
In the United Kingdom, the Best Practice Award 2013 was organized in several categories. In this edition, we present the Project Award won by joint winners Decomo UK for Emirates Arena (pictured) and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, Glasgow and Thorp Precast for the new Cooperative Head Office, Manchester.
The indoor Arena has a capacity of 5,000 while the velodrome has a 250 meter indoor track with a capacity of 2,500 (2,000 seated), expanding to 4,500 (4,000 seated) with temporary seating during the Games. The Velodrome is named after Olympic and Commonwealth gold-medal winning Scottish cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, Britain’s most successful Olympic athlete.
AGENDA
DECEMBER
2 December 2013
CEN/TC 104/TG 20/Editorial Panel
Brussels, Belgium
3-5 December 2013
SAFECLADDING
Brussels, Belgium
12-13 December 2013
CEN/TC 229 Plenary
Brussels, Belgium
17 December 2013
BIBM General Assembly
Brussels, Belgium
JANUARY
14 January 2014
CEN/TC 104/TG 20
Brussels, Belgium
21 January 2014
BIBM Communication Commission
Brussels, Belgium
FEBRUARY
17 February 2014
Directors’ meeting
Ulm, Germany
18-20 February 2014
BetonTage
Ulm, Germany
20 February 2014
CEN/TC 104/TG 20/Editorial Panel
Paris, France
24 February 2014
CPE – CPR WG
Brussels, Belgium
26 February 2014
Environmental Commission
Brussels, Belgium
MARCH
4 March 2014
H&S Committee
Brussels, Belgium
5-7 March 2014
CEN/TC 104/SC 1 and CEN/TC 104
Vienna, Austria
25 March 2014
BIBM Board
Brussels, Belgium
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