Supporting Study for Fitness Check on the Construction Sector – The Second Phase on EU Environment, Health and Safety Legislation REF: 901

In the course of the implementation of the EU’s “Construction 2020” Action Plan, the following list of priority legislative areas were identified to be assessed through Fitness Checks to identify excessive administrative burdens, overlaps, gaps, inconsistencies and obsolete measures of a number of EU legal acts imposing obligations on the construction sector:

  • Internal Market, including horizontal and sectorial legislation, public procurement, posting of workers and recognition of professional qualifications;
  • Energy Efficiency;
  • Environment;
  • Health and Safety of workers, citizens and occupants.

RPA’s work for the European Commission (DG Grow) focused on the last two legislative areas mentioned above, i.e. Environment and Health and Safety. The study’s aim was to evaluate the efficiency, coherence, effectiveness, relevance and EU added value of the selected EU legislative texts over the period 2004-14 with respect to the achievement of the objectives for a more competitive and sustainable construction sector, in particular for SMEs. To this end, RPA undertook an empirical analysis of national situations and conditions based on a selected sample of 10 countries reflecting the various construction business systems in the EU, and focussed on enterprises in the construction sector delivering products and/or services for the design stage, the construction, final commissioning, maintenance, renovation and end-of-life of the residential and non-residential buildings.