2 November 2020

For its second edition, the European Fire Safety Week 2020 (EUFSW2020) will take place virtually from 17–19 November. The ambitious objective of the week is to gather together policymakers, fire services, fire experts and other stakeholders to bring the topic of fire safety higher in the EU political agenda.

This year again, the European Fire Safety Alliance (EuroFSA) teams with a large group of stakeholders to amplify fruitful exchanges amongst them, building upon the European Fire Safety Action Plan.

Launched earlier this year in an event with policymakers, this action plan is supported by more than 120 firefighters, fire professionals, associations, academics, fire safety stakeholders and members of the European Parliament. It is never too late to support the Action Plan!

We are very proud and honored to get three Members of the European Parliament involved in the Webinar #5 related to the Energy Transition and buildings:

Maria da Graça Carvalho from Portugal. She was a senior advisor of Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, from November 2014 to December 2015. Previously, she was a member of the European Parliament, between July 2009 and May 2014. In that capacity, she was one of the rapporteurs of Horizon 2020. She was also Principal Adviser to President Barroso in the fields of Science, Higher Education, Innovation, Research Policy, Energy, Environment and Climate Change from 2006 to 2009. She is a Full Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico (University of Lisbon).

Strong supporter of the European Fire Safety Alliance, Member of the European Parliament Carlos Zorrinho from Portugal will close the session related to Buildings and Fire Safety Competency. Mr Zorrinho is also one of the first MEP that officially signed to support the European Fire Safety Action Plan and hosted its launch last September.

Author of the Motion for a Resolution to set up a EU Fire Safety Day, Member of the European Parliament Željana Zovko from Croatia will open the webinar focusing on the context of the Energy Transition and Fire Safety of Buildings on Thursday.

The Modern Building Alliance is immensely proud to contribute to this significant milestone for fire safety and hopes this edition of the Fire Safety Week will be as successful as the last.

In collaboration with the European Fire Safety Alliance, Europacable and the Forum for European Electrical Domestic Safety (FEEDS), the Modern Building Alliance is co-organising the fifth session, dedicated to the stake of the Energy Transition for buildings and the role of fire safety competency.

Download the PDF programme

Download the PDF programme

Quentin de Hults, the executive chair of the Modern Building Alliance, will present exclusive results from an architects’ survey about the involvement of fire safety experts during a building’s design.

We will learn about the best practices on the involvement of fire experts in construction projects and the organisation of electrical inspections at national levels. Together with architects, fire engineers, academics and policymakers, we will map the necessary roles and responsibilities of fire safety professional needed during the design, construction and operation phases of a building. Moreover, we will discuss how to strengthen their role, skills and competencies to accompany the renovation wave.

The importance of fire safety competency has already been recognised in an own-initiative report of the EU Parliament. Join the webinar to help us to move the discussion forward!

Download the PDF programme

15 October 2020

The communication on the Renovation Wave has been published.

The Renovation Wave strategy is a flagship initiative of the EU Green Deal and of the Next Generation EU recovery plan. The ambition of the Renovation Wave is to rapidly double the current renovation rate of buildings to boost climate protection and circularity while creating thousands of new jobs. We welcome this vital strategy to put the EU economy back on track. Indeed, the Renovation Wave brings multiple positive side effects that will sustainably improve the quality of life of EU citizens.

The plastics industry offers numerous materials and products that contribute to sustainable construction due to the many advantageous attributes of plastics, such as their performance, durability, weather resistance, low-maintenance, cost-effectiveness and flexible and lightweight designs.

Click here to learn more.

The Modern Building Alliance particularly welcomes the intervention area that will ensure the construction system is ‘fit to deliver sustainable renovation’. The Skills Agenda is necessary to ensure that the refurbishment will meet the expected quality and energy savings while complying with other requirements - including safety. Developing skills and competencies of professionals involved in aspects such as fire safety is an opportunity to ensure a holistic, material-neutral and performance-based renovation wave that combines sustainability, health and safety.

In a recently voted report, the European Parliament confirmed its intention to increase building renovations and also underlined, ‘that ensuring quality, compliance, and safety requires adequate competencies and skills of professionals involved during the design and construction/renovation’.

When it comes to ensuring the fire safety of buildings, we are convinced that this complex issue requires competent professionals with clear roles and responsibilities who are involved in the buildings’ design, construction and maintenance phases. The involvement of fire safety engineers during a building’s design is not yet common practice. Recent tragic events have illustrated how a lack of compliance with fire safety measures can have serious consequences. The work of fire safety experts must be reinforced to accompany the sustainable transformation of building stock, in particular in the context of the energy transition that includes the electrification of buildings (e-mobility, solar panels, batteries…) and the decentralisation of the energy production. Regular fire safety checks of buildings, including inspections of electrical and fire safety installations, are also necessary.

We, therefore, call on policymakers to include fire safety skills and competencies into the Skills Agenda of the Renovation Wave so that it will also be an opportunity for fire safety.

Read more about our call for action on fire safety competency.

29 September 2020

Many fruitful exchanges on fire safety took place today during an online conference organised by the European Fire Safety Alliance and hosted by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), Pernille Weiss (DK, EPP) and Carlos Zorrinho (PT, S&D).

Representatives of the European Commission from DG GROW, DG ECHO, the JRC, four MEPs and numerous stakeholders joined the discussion to establish the six priority focus areas where fire safety should be improved according to EuroFSA.

These areas are:

• The growing vulnerable community
• The reduction of dangerous escape times
• The energy transition
• The awareness of fire safety
• EU-wide data on residential fires
• EU-wide communication and collaboration

These focus areas led to the development of a list of 10 actions to improve fire safety in Europe.

The Modern Building Alliance supports the entirety of the action plan and its holistic approach. We are particularly keen to contribute to Action 5, which relates to energy transition and must be accompanied by fire safety knowledge and competency. This echoes our Call for Action on Fire Safety Competency.

Invited to present on what role the EU can play in these areas, Quentin de Hults recalled that fire safety was taken into account in recent political developments, such as an own-initiative report voted in at beginning of September. He also stated that compliance and enforcement of the current regulations are crucial to ensure the fire safety of buildings. This requires the presence of the proper skills and competencies during all stages of the building’s lifetime, from design and construction to maintenance.

The sustainable evolution of building stocks offers new opportunities, however, there are similarly new fire risks. For this reason, we must ensure that fire safety skills and competencies will accompany a safe transformation of the building stock.

Quentin de Hults explained that the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) requires the involvement of accredited energy experts for the certification of buildings, as well as for the inspection of heating and cooling installation. While fire safety was mentioned during the latest revision of the directive in 2018, he suggested that the EPBD could go one step further by establishing the importance of including accredited experts during the design of fire safe buildings and for the inspection of electrical and safety installations.

The Modern Building Alliance will join forces with EuroFSA to work on Action 5. Together, we will see how we can further collaborate on three main ideas:

1. Define the roles, responsibilities and required competencies for accredited fire safety professionals, such as fire safety engineers, fire safety designers and electrical/fire safety inspectors.
   • Compare with the current situation and analyse shortcomings.
   • Map the current situation and analyse any gaps.
2. Identify a way to embed the need for fire safety competency in legislation.
   • The EPBD should require accredited fire experts to be involved in aspects of building design, construction, renovation and inspection.
3. Develop knowledge and education at the national and EU levels.
   • Erasmus +, Horizon programmes, BuildUpSkills and others can be used to develop knowledge, research and education on fire safety.

The Modern Building Alliance represents the plastics industry in the construction sector. An essential pillar of our cause is the ambition for greater fire safety across the construction industry. A key driver of our product design and manufacturing is to improve the fire safety of buildings. It is a joint responsibility of the whole value chain to be involved in building and construction.

By engaging with policymakers and stakeholders, we are committed to supporting the EU in ensuring safe and sustainable construction for people across Europe.

17 September 2020

Today, the European Parliament has adopted in plenary the Own initiative report ‘Maximising the Energy Efficiency potential of the EU building stock’.  This reports goes beyond strictly energy efficiency aspects and reminds the importance of addressing fire safety during the renovation of the building stock. Via several mentions to fire safety, the report supports a holistic, performance-based and material-neutral approach that relies on the competencies and skills of professionals.

Full story here

The report was adopted by 526 votes in favour (+), 77 against (-) and 94 abstentions (0).

The importance of Fire Safety Competencies to accompany the renovation wave will also be on the agenda of an online event organised by EuroFSA and hosted by the shadow rapporteur Pernille Weiss (EPP – Denmark) on the 29 September.

19 August 2020

The Modern Building Alliance gave feedback to the Inception Impact Assessment published by the European Commission about the review of the Construction Products Regulation (CPR). The CPR lays down EU-wide rules for the marketing of construction products. Its review announced in the European Green Deal communication of December 2019, aims to address some issues identified in the 2019 evaluation, to improve the functioning of the single market and to promote environmental goals and product safety. The Inception Impact Assessment presents different options considered by the European Commission, from no legislative change to repealing to CPR.

The Modern Building Alliance stressed in its input to the roadmap that the CPR, together with several other elements such as national building codes & regulations, plays an essential role for the safety of construction works, including for fire safety of buildings. Any change considered must carefully assess the potential safety impact and the potential for improvement which can mainly be found in better implementation and enforcement. Modern Building Alliance therefore supports preferably option A (no legislative changes), radically rejects option E (repealing the CPR) and calls for strengthening quality, compliance and enforcement by developing fire safety competencies.

8 July 2020

The European Commission is preparing the Renovation Wave (a proposal announced by the Green Deal and expected for September) with the ambition of boosting the renovation rate of the EU building stock.

Its main objectives: to make the most of energy renovations of public and private buildings in order to tackle climate change and energy poverty and to improve the well-being of EU citizens while creating local jobs and relaunching the EU economy. It is also a key component of the post COVID-19 recovery plan.

 The Renovation Wave is an unprecedented opportunity to improve the overall quality of buildings and fire safety must not be overlooked during these efforts.

 In our reply to the recent public consultation, we stressed the importance of not forgetting fire safety and of addressing it in a holistic, performance based and material/solution neutral approach. We encouraged a focus on fire safety skills and competencies as an accompaniment to building renovation.

Ensuring the fire safety of buildings is a complex issue requiring competent professionals with clear roles and responsibilities who are involved during the buildings’ design, construction and maintenance phases.

The involvement of fire safety engineers in building design is not sufficiently common practice; in particular, their work must be incorporated to a greater extent during the sustainable transformation of the building stock. Regular fire safety checks of buildings, including inspections of electrical and fire safety installations, are also necessary and can transform each renovation into an opportunity to improve fire safety.

 The Modern Building Alliance will monitor this important dossier and repeat its recommendations every time it is possible for the EU to play a role in strengthening fire safety competencies in order to ensure safe buildings for European citizens.

More info about the Renovation Wave Consultation