Construction

The construction sector is one of Europe's biggest industries, representing about 9% of the EU's GDP and 50.5% of Gross fixed Capital formation. It employs more than 18 million EU citizens and it is estimated that 26 million workers in the European Union depend, in one way or another, on the construction sector.

CEN and CENELEC, as two of the official European Standardization Organizations (ESOs), support the construction sector, developing harmonized European standards in support of the Construction Products Regulation (Regulation EU 305/2011 - CPR). European product standards, the core of the harmonized standards, are an essential tool for all stakeholders in the construction sector. They enhance the internal market allowing the free movement of construction products in the European Union and increase the competitiveness within this industry.

The construction sector is fundamental in ensuring that the ambitions of the Recovery Plan and the Green Deal embrace the opportunity for a stronger and more sustainable Europe moving forward: take for example the Renovation Wave, issued last month by the European Commission which calls specifically for climate resilient building standards.

Given the importance and broad applicability of the construction sector, stakeholders working on standards in the field include manufacturers of construction products, national and European industry associations, laboratories and notified bodies, engineers, structural designers, the scientific community and the European Commission.

Construction activities

Construction contributes to our society by making our built environment a safe and pleasant place to live in. For this reason, European Standards (ENs) are developed to set out performance characteristics and assessment methods of construction products and materials and to provide the requisite testing and/or calculation methods for them. Key flagship activities in this sector comprise (but are not limited to):

CEN/TC 250 'Structural Eurocodes' – Established a series of project teams under standardization request M/515 'Mandate for amending existing Eurocodes and extending the scope of structural Eurocodes'. This technical committee works on the standardization of structural and geotechnical design rules for building and civil engineering works, therefore, taking into account the relationship between design rules and the assumptions to be made for all major materials, execution and control. Structural Eurocodes are equally applicable to both whole structures and individual elements of structures (products). They are widely used in the construction and civil engineering industry throughout Europe, and have been implemented in neighbouring countries and worldwide.

CEN/TC 442 'Building Information Modelling (BIM)' develops standards that support the digitalization of the construction industry. It is active in the development of a structured set of standards, specifications and reports which specify methodologies to define, describe, exchange, monitor, record and securely handle asset data, semantics and processes with links to geospatial and other external data.

CEN/TC 442 has created a mapping to present an overview of the BIM standards developed by CEN/TC 442 and to show the relationships between these different standards. This representation shows to which category a standard belongs, for what it is used and whom it is addressed. This information and a short summary appear by clicking on the standard. It provides a snapshot of the standards published and standards under development, including some standards under development or published outside of CEN/TC 442.

Sector Forum on Construction

The CEN Sector Forum on Construction is an advisory and coordinating body to the CEN Technical Board on political and strategic matters related to the Construction sector. Members of the sector forum are Sector forum chair and secretariat, experts of CEN and CENELEC members and partner organizations, relevant European Commission DGs and the EFTA secretariat, Technical Bodies developing standards on horizontal aspects for construction and CEN-CENELEC Management Centre.