Representatives for the European construction industry have urged the continent’s law makers to carefully consider any changes to outdoor noise legislation.
Meeting with the European Commission last month, the Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE) discussed a position paper on the Outdoor Noise Directive (OND) 2000/14/EC that the association has published on the matter.
The main point put forward by the CECE has two perspectives.
From the horizontal approach, the argument made is the need for a flexibility in the conformity assessment procedures, extending the use of self-certification to equipment subject to noise limits. Other recommendations made include leaving the actual noise marking label unchanged; noise test codes should be updated through delegated acts instead of reopening the legislation whenever a new code becomes available; the actual noise database should be ended; the OND should be aligned with the New Legislative Framework (NLF) and turned into a Regulation to facilitate application across the EU’s Member States.
On a sectoral level, the CECE explained that the specificities faced by the construction equipment sector raise important concerns regarding the Directive. These include clarifications on the typical use of machinery; influence of process noise throughout the machine’s operation; updated test codes for construction equipment; examples on investment costs for more silent technologies and clarifications on some of the data about equipment population on EU Member States.
The European Commission’s DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) committee welcomed the feedback and praised the efforts of the CECE for providing “an accurate picture of the sector”.
An open public consultation on the OND will be the Commission’s next step expected to take place during the last quarter of this year, with a proposal due in early 2021.
