In July 2024, the European Commission adopted the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) as part of its wider Circular Economy Action Plan. This initiative, which will build on the Ecodesign Directive and propose additional legislative measures as appropriate, aims to make products placed on the EU market more sustainable. following its adoption in April 2025, the Commission adopted its Working Plan 2025-2030, which features aluminium among the intermediate products under scrutiny.
A well-balanced approach adapted to our value chain will allow for a smooth and accelerated transition to a resource-efficient, low-carbon, and circular economy, which can help realise the EU’s Green Deal’s sustainability objectives. It also can help ensure coherency and complementarity between all policy areas relevant to our sector. To fulfil the ESPR principles and harness their full potential, each covered product category must be scrutinised in detail and carefully assessed.
European Aluminium will work towards ensuring ESPR market instruments are tailored to support the uptake of sustainable products, and its implementation comes with continued work on standards and coherence with existing legislation as well as proportional and adapted Digital Product Passport (DPP) requirements.
The new Construction Products Regulation (EU) 2024/3110 (CPR-2024) entered into force in January 2025, laying down new harmonised rules for the marketing of construction products in the European internal market while providing a common technical language to assess construction products’ performance and conformity. It will not overcome, but replace gradually the Construction Products Regulation from 2011 (CPR-2011).
The European Commission is currently working to update the so-called “CPR Acquis”, i.e. the set of harmonised standards, the European assessment documents and other legal acts for construction products. Aluminium products are high on the priority list and European Aluminium is actively contributing to shaping future harmonised standards for windows, doors and curtain walling. In the near future, this work will be extended to develop, for the first time, harmonised standards for ventilated façade systems as well as balustrades.
As soon as the new harmonised standards will be fully enforced, the novelties of the CPR-2024 will introduce several mandatory requirements like:
- The issuance of Declaration of Performance and Conformity (DoPC),
- The declaration of environmental sustainability performance as part of the DoPC (substituting the voluntary Environmental Product Declarations),
- The use of the Digital Product Passport to provide relevant information about construction products.
Simplified procedures that European Aluminium introduced in the CPR-2011 to allow affordable compliance for manufacturers are kept in the new CPR-2024.
In order to guide manufacturers in the implementation of the CPR-2024, European Aluminium coordinated a group of experts that developed the Construction Products Europe’s “CPR Guide for Manufacturers” (available in many EU languages).
More information about the novelties of the new Regulation for aluminium products can be found in this video.
Supporting sustainable products and consumption
EU product policies like the proposed Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, the Energy Labelling Directive, the Ecolabel Regulation, and Construction Products Regulation constitute the core legal framework defining energy and environmental requirements for a wide range of products. The European Commission identifies priority product groups, studies them, and sets requirements when relevant. European Aluminium strongly supports sustainable product and consumption policies and works with European institutions to ensure suitable requirements are set.