EU Highlights N°27– 1ST JULY 2010 IN THIS ISSUE Editorial The Eurogypsum Congress celebrating the 50 years anniversary of Eurogypsum was a real success encouraging us to achieve what is in the heart of our Industry “Sustainable Construction”. EU and Eurogypsum General Policies New board and President for Eurogypsum For many years, The European Gypsum Industry has been addressing the societal life- cycle impacts of its processes, products and Raw Material and Environment systems for enhancing a pleasant, healthy and ETS comfortable environment. The European Commission C&D Waste Survey Gypsum Industry has thus achieved IPPC recast second reading significant results benefiting the environment and Society as a whole: extracting in a Scientific and Technical Issues sustainable way, rehabilitating quarries, Political Agreement on CPR enhancing biodiversity, reducing and recycling Parliament adopts second reading on EPBD production and construction gypsum waste. Council adopts common position on Energy labelling Directive But the Industry needs to do more .The work Commission launched tender on Eco- undertaken by Eurogypsum to reach the 70% design Directive study target for Recycling, Re-use and Material A Directive on water savings in Buildings recovery of Construction and Demolition Waste expected should continue with the application for the REACH: calcium Sulphate registered with Life+ Programme in September 2010. Another ECHA task is to promote interior insulation which presents many advantages, especially for Marketing and Communication renovation. Eurogypsum Congress on 16-17 June 2010 Green Homes do not translate to sale success Eurogypsum forthcoming Events Bernard Lekien Christine Marlet President Secretary General EU Highlights 25 1st July 2010 / Page: 2 • Manfred Grundke (DE): CEO of Knauf, EU and Eurogypsum representing the German Gypsum General Policies Association. • Jean-Marie Vaissaire (BE): Regional Director of Saint Gobain Gyproc, New Board and President for representing the Belgian Gypsum Eurogypsum Association. During its General Assembly held in Strasbourg • Jean-Michel Desmoutier (UK): on 16 June 2010, Eurogypsum elected The Managing Director of Lafarge Gypsum Regional President for Lafarge Gypsum Bernard UK, representing the UK Gypsum Lekien as President of Eurogypsum for the Association. 2010-2012 period. Bernard Lekien succeeds the former CEO of Saint Gobain Gyproc, Jean- Raw Material Pierre Clavel at the expiry of his statutory term of office. and Environment Bernard Lekien is a civil engineer graduated at the university of Liège Belgium. He has also an MBA of the University of Austin in Texas. He joined the Lafarge cement branch in 1982 and started its gypsum activities within Lafarge in 1989. In 2009, he was appointed Regional President for all Lafarge Gypsum operations in Europe. The newly elected members of the Eurogypsum Board are: René Moretti • Bernard Lekien (FR): President, Regional President for all Lafarge Emissions Trading Scheme: Gypsum operations in Europe. Member States to opt out from • Claude Alain Tardy (FR): Vice single EU Platform for CO2 President, CEO of Saint Gobain Gyproc, representing the French Gypsum Auctioning Association. Member States will have the opportunity to opt • Alexander Knauf (DK); Treasurer, out of a single EU platform for auctioning CO2 Knauf partner for the Nordic countries, allowances under the EU’s Emission Trading i representing the Nordic Gypsum System (ETS ) from 2013, according to a Association. proposal for a Regulation adopted by the • Maurizio Casalini (IT): Managing European Commission this month. Director of Knauf Italy, representing the Gypsum Italian Association. The draft Regulations says that any Member • Esteban Oyarzabal (ES): Customer State not participating in the joint action would Services & Purchaser Director of Saint have to inform the Commission of its decision Gobain Placo Ibérica, representing the to appoint its own auction platform within three Spanish Gypsum Association. months of the Regulation’s entry into force. • Maciej Dyja (Poland): Managing The European Parliament has now a three- Director of Lafarge Gypsum Poland, month scrutiny period to review the proposal. representing the Polish Gypsum Member states must approve the plans for the Association. regulation to become law, in a vote expected within the next three months. EU Highlights 25 1st July 2010 / Page: 3 Four major Member States – the UK, Germany, Environment Committee adopts Poland and Spain – have consistently opposed the formation a single platform, which has IPPC Recast Second reading helped to delay the adoption of the draft Report Regulation. There have also been disagreements within the European Parliament’s Environment Committee adopted Commission over the proposal, which was the Draft Recommendation for Second Reading originally scheduled for adoption by June 2010. on the Integrated Pollution Prevention and DG Enterprise, for example, felt that DG Control (IPPC i) Recast on 4 May 2010, by 40 Environment, which led the work developing votes in favour to 13 against. the new auctioning rules, has neglected the views of other Commission services and has The Committee agreed on stricter conditions complained of insufficient consultation. for deviating from best available techniques (BAT i). Operators of IPPC installations would The Draft Regulation can be found here: only be able to deviate from BAT in http://ec.europa.eu/environment/climat/emissi “exceptional” cases, provided certain conditions on/pdf/proposed_auctioning_reg.pdf are met; operators must be able to prove that they cannot apply BAT because of technical characteristics and because it would lead to Commission Construction and “disproportionately high costs”. Demolition Waste Study The European Commission is currently The Committee also backed Mr Krahmer’s conducting a study on the management of proposed minimum emission limit values for Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste in industrial sectors with a high environmental the EU. The Environment Directorate-General impact or where BAT is not properly commissioned BIO Intelligence Service and its implemented. The adopted recommendation partners, Arcadis and IEEP, to carry out this states that limits should be decided through study. the co-decision procedure, following sectoral assessments. The aim is to analyse how to implement the 70% target of the waste framework directive Rapporteur Holger Krahmer (ALDE, Germany) and in this context the study represent a useful said that the recommendation adopted by the tool for the definition of the future steps and Committee was a good start for negotiations trends regarding the management of C&D with the Council of Ministers, due to begin waste in Europe. shortly. A plenary vote in Strasbourg on the IPPC Recast is scheduled for 6 July 2010. The materials considered in the study are: concrete, bricks, tiles and ceramic, asphalt, wood and gypsum. The scope of the Directive remains for installations of 50MW. The countries case studies refer to Germany, Flanders, Spain, Finland and Hungary. The draft final report is available and will be discussed during a workshop organized in Brussels on 21 June 2010. Eurogypsum has attended this workshop and made a presentation on Gypsum recycling. EU Highlights 25 1st July 2010 / Page: 4 • Concerning the substance of the Scientific and proposal as agreed on 17 November Technical Issues 2009, Parliament and Council agreed that in 2020, all new buildings (commercial and households) will have to be “nearly-zero energy” buildings. • In 2018 all new Public sector buildings will have to be “nearly-zero energy” buildings. • Financial incentives will be made available to implement the Directive. Furthermore, the Commission is committed to examining the appropriateness of increasing the threshold in the Structural Funds for housing. Yves Benkemoun • A possibility to upgrade existing buildings to “nearly-zero” energy Political Agreement reached on buildings has been inserted in the text. the Construction Products • A voluntary EU certification scheme for the non-residential sector will be Regulation established. The Competitiveness Council reached on 25 May 2010, by qualified majority, a political Council adopts Common agreement on a draft regulation updating the conditions for the marketing of construction Position on Energy Labelling products in the internal market, the successor Directive to the Construction Products Directive. The text The Council has adopted its Common Position will be forwarded to the European Parliament on the proposal for a Directive on energy for a second reading under the Council- labelling. This Directive would apply to energy- Parliament ordinary procedure (co-decision). related products which have a significant direct or indirect impact on the consumption of Parliament adopts second energy and, where relevant, on other essential Reading on Energy resources during use. Performance of Buildings In relation to the priority list of energy-related The European Parliament adopted its opinion in products and, more specifically, construction second reading on the proposal for a Directive products, windows and doors are expected to on energy performance of buildings on 18 May be included. However, for “intermediary 2010. As no motion to reject the Council’s products”, these will not, in principle, be on the common neither position nor any amendment list. was tabled, the second reading opinion was approved without a vote. The adoption closes Commission launch