Activities in different sectors

Eurogypsum is recognized as a reliable and credible partner for the EU institutions providing solutions for sustainable construction and developing its political activities at the EU level. The association has been very active in the following fields:

The revision of the European Emissions Trading Scheme
As the President, Jean-Pierre Clavel (Fig.), stated in an interview with the online media Euractiv that carbon leakage is already happening. He said “I cannot challenge the fact that we have to decrease the energy content in our product. But I can also say that in the thirty years that I have been in the industry. We have halved the energy costs in our products. And there is still room for improvement. So, this is our job in managing the business. Having an incentive to press ahead with this is in order. What I am afraid of is the free market for the CO2 tickets because it is out of control. We do not know what will happen. When we carry out a simulation at a certain level, we cannot estimate the carbon price. So one of the main issues is that the system that they are going to adopt is a system that will give us no idea of what could happen. Maybe it will cost nothing. Maybe it will cost a large amount. So we may take decisions on something that will never happen? They should be aware of this”. 
The revision of the Construction Products Directive
In May 2008, the Commission published a proposal reviewing the revision of the Construction Products Directive (CPD) for adoption by the European Parliament and the Council. Mrs. Catherine Neris, French Socialist was appointed to manage the debate on this issue. She tabled a report with amendments to the commission text in October 2008. Other members of the European Parliament thereafter also tabled amendments to her report. Discussion of those amendments was scheduled for the 15.12.2008. The European Parliament will adopt its final position in March 2009. If the council endorses it, the regulation will be implemented early in 2010.

Eurogypsum encourages the European Parliament to go ahead towards a simplification and provide for mutual agreement between member states for innovative products. Indeed, the latter seldom move cross-border at the beginning and mutual recognition is the simplest way when necessary. Eurogypsum also highlights the need to develop electronic data exchange because the technical documentation is not easy for our products and because our customers are now working with the Internet. It will be in particular very useful for the essential characteristics dealing with sustainable use of natural resources … which may be very complex and need to be taken into account by many stakeholders, for the buildings and not only for the products.
Green Public Procurement Criteria (GPP) for gypsum boards
Eurogypsum sent its comments to the commission on the proposed GPP criteria for wall panels, and more specifically for gypsum boards. The GPP criteria proposed in the commission report are exclusively drawn on existing national and international eco-label schemes.

The GPP criteria should also take into account the installation of the construction products. Therefore, Eurogypsum questions the adequacy of the eco-label tool for ensuring the health, safety and environmental issues of a construction product. ­Eurogypsum also highlights the fact that the criteria proposed are based on eco-labelling schemes whose scientific base has not been proven in the report. In the absence of a detailed ­impact assessment of the reliability of the eco-label schemes mentioned in the report, Eurogypsum questions the value of the criteria proposed in the draft report as relevant to the ­gypsum panels.

Eurogypsum 2009 Workshop
A workshop entitled: “Towards excellence in sustainable production and consumption” will be held on 13 May 2009 in Brussels. The workshop is open to Eurogypsum members, EU institutions and representatives of European associations.