Comité Européen de l' Industrie de la Robinetterie / European Association for the Taps and Valves Industry
CEIR
The Comité Européen de l' Industrie de la Robinetterie / European Association for the Taps and Valves Industry (CEIR—Taps & Valves Europe) was formed in 1959 as the European Federation of National Manufacturer Associations in the taps and valves industry.
ID: 54018122087-60
Lobbying Activity
Meeting with Pernille Weiss-Ehler (Cabinet of Commissioner Jessika Roswall)
1 Jul 2025 · Water Resilience Strategy and the Drinking Water Directive
Response to European Water Resilience Strategy
3 Mar 2025
CEIR - Taps & Valves Europe, is the leading industry federation of the European sanitary and building taps and industrial valves sectors, gathering 12 national associations, more than 600 companies and provides 120 000 jobs with a turnover of over 20bn . As key enablers of water efficiency, conservation, and circularity, the sector provides the innovative solutions needed to optimise water use in buildings and industrial processes. CEIR supports the establishment of an ambitious and comprehensive Water Resilience Strategy. Water stands at the center of the economic, societal, and environmental sustainability of Europe. In light of the escalating pressures on the continent's freshwater resources, intensified by the impacts of climate change, Europe urgently needs to become water resilient. Furthermore, the Water Resilience Strategy is an imperative to provide European socio-economic actors with a competitive edge, while ensuring the availability of water resources of the highest quality at the right time. CEIR is committed to contributing to a just, green and digital transformation, as well as promoting a Water-Smart Society. By developing high-performance, water- and energy-efficient taps, valves, and fittings, as well as smart water management, the industry contributes to reducing water consumption, minimizing leaks, and enhancing system efficiency. The sectors technologies are essential not only for protecting water resources but also for lowering energy demand, as domestic and industrial hot water consumption accounts for a significant share of household and industrial energy consumption. Our sector also supports the reuse of alternative water sources, such as greywater and rainwater, for specific purposes by providing the necessary technology and infrastructure to enable safe and efficient water recycling. To fully unlock the potential of these innovations and drive Europe's water resilience, CEIR calls on policymakers to implement targeted measures that promote water efficiency, digitalization, and circularity. CEIRs recommendations are presented in the attached file.
Read full responseResponse to Revision of the Machinery Directive
11 Feb 2019
CEIR, the European Association for the Taps and Valves Industry, welcomes the opportunity to express its views on a possible revision of the Machinery Directive.
CEIR supports options 1 and 2 for the reasons listed below.
Option 1 (alignment with the NLF) is clear: a directive that articulates itself differently from other legislative acts cannot be retained.
The current definitions of machinery and partly completed machinery offer too much scope for interpretation, leading different manufacturers to classify a similar or identical product in different legal ways. Indeed, the concept of specific application, for example, can be interpreted in many ways (from the strictest to the laxest reading) and does not make it possible to determine whether an equipment is a machine, a partly completed machinery, or sometimes a simple component. Today, we find ourselves with interpretations in total contradiction with those agreed and included in the original 1998 interpretation guide, which leads to destabilize the market for certain equipment, which had been stable for over 20 years.
It may also be useful to recall that components can be integrated into a machine without being evaluated according to the Machinery Directive: many pieces of equipment, developed for other industrial sectors, can be integrated into a machine. They are then evaluated according to other directives (PED, ATEX, EMCD, etc.) and it is, in this case, the responsibility of the machine manufacturer (or the integrator) to evaluate the residual risks associated with integration into his product. The boundaries with other Directives must be improved without necessarily any equipment constituting a machine being evaluated according to the Machine Directive at the time of placing it on the market (this does not mean that the equipment in question will not be evaluated against Machinery Directive during the final evaluation of the complete machine).
Finally, although the Machinery Directive covers a large number of pieces of equipment in a wide variety of fields, it would seem that it is open to too many interpretations, as shown by its current 457-page application guide for a law of only 63 pages.
Option 2 therefore seems to CEIR to be the most appropriate because, in addition to providing a better framework for new technologies (AI, IoT, documentation in electronic format, etc.), it would make it possible to refine and clarify the text and reduce the multiple interpretations that represent an additional burden and legal uncertainty for an industrial network which is, it should be recalled, mainly composed of SMEs.
Option 4 seems to CEIR to be a good initiative, but too premature since there are still too many uncertainties about future texts and too many possible interpretations of the current text.
For this reason, CEIR supports options 1 in conjunction with option 2. CEIR would be willing to cooperate with the European Commission in the revision process to find an appropriate definition of partly completed machinery, specific application, and other relevant issues, in the interest of all parties and in particular valve manufacturers.
Read full responseResponse to Revision of the Drinking Water Directive (RECAST 2017)
30 Mar 2018
Please find attached the CEIR contribution to the proposal on the revision of the Drinking Water Directive (recast 2017).
Read full responseResponse to Revision of the Drinking Water Directive
28 Mar 2017
CEIR supports the work of the European Commission to review the Drinking Water Directive and approves the main conclusions on Article 10 stated in the evaluation report (dated 7 December 2016).
The inception impact assessment clearly highlights the unnecessary burden on and obstacles to the internal market created by the multiple testing and approval systems in several Member States.
One option identified is “3. proposing EU harmonized standards for materials and products in contact with drinking water”.
We understand this proposal should be read in a very generic manner since such harmonised standards will need a legal base in order to tackle the lack of harmonisation. However, the Construction Products Regulation is not an adequate or effective legal base because it does not cover all products and does not provide full harmonization. The specific study on materials in contact with drinking water (1) presents the situation in detail and should be further considered to find a suitable solution.
CEIR takes this opportunity to resubmit their position paper dated 2014 but which is still valid.
CEIR will be pleased to support the Commission in future developments, both directly as well as via the European Drinking Water (EDW) consortium. CEIR is a member of EDW and supports its work.
(1) “Support to the implementation and further development of the Drinking Water Directive (98/83/EC): Study on materials in contact with drinking water”, February 2017
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