Members of the Internal Committee of the European Parliament voted on 10 January 2010 to endorse a new EU regulation on the marketing of construction products. According to these new rules construction products containing hazardous substances will have to be clearly labelled as such in order to protect the health and safety of construction workers and users of construction works.

Under the new regulation, the "declaration of performance" already required for every construction product will have to include information on hazardous substances, as required by the 2006 REACH Regulation, so as to make the contents clear to all potential users and ensure a high level of protection of health and safety.

In addition, the Commission will draw up a report assessing the specific needs for information on these hazardous substances, and taking account, inter alia, of the need to ensure a high level of protection of the health and safety of workers using construction products and of users of construction works. Its assessment must also have regard to requirements on recycling and/or re-use of parts or materials.

The regulation is to simplify, update and replace current rules, simplify procedures so as to reduce red tape, especially for micro-enterprises, and ensure transparency. Micro-companies manufacturing construction products may choose to use new simplified performance assessment procedures, provided that they can demonstrate the products' compliance with requirements by methods equivalent to those laid down in harmonised standards.

The new rules also include an exemption from the declaration of performance requirement for construction products manufactured in a traditional manner or in a manner appropriate to heritage conservation and in a non-industrial process.

Many other amendments accepted by the Council refer to the need to protect the environment and promote recycling of construction products. They also stipulate that when assessing the performance of a construction product, account must be taken of the health and safety considerations relating to its use throughout its entire life cycle.