European Fire Sprinkler Network
Budget
€25 — €0
EP Access
0
accredited persons
Staff
1
0.25 FTE
EU Grants
None
Mission & Goals
The European Fire Sprinkler Network was set up in 2002 to bring together all those who wish to see a step improvement in European fire safety through the wider use of fire sprinkler systems. It has members from 13 Member States, including fire brigade associations, insurers, fire safety laboratories, consultancies, fire sprinkler manufacturers and installers. We have been involved in campaigns in a number of Member States as well as in the European Parliament. Our goal is to achieve recognition in fire safety regulations of the benefits of fire sprinklers. Over 4,000 Europeans die in fires each year and the economic impact is over 1% of GDP. Fire is also a major cause of environmental incidents and the leading cause of incidents that affect water quality. Decades of statistics show that almost all the deaths could be prevented by sprinklers and that over 80% of the economic losses could also be avoided. Environmental damage could also be prevented.
EU Legislative Interests
Now that the revised CPR has been published we are trying to work out what impact it will have on our sector. The CPR affects our work on construction products standards and since it was first published has halted progress with harmonised product standards. We fear that the new CPR will be no better but will see if it is possible to write standards that comply with it. We follow the work of the European Commission's Fire Industry Exchange Platform, FIEP, which was set up in response to the Grenfell Tower disaster and as its name suggests, aims to share information and best practice between Member States. We are keen to help in that process. The FIEP has a number of active projects and we are particularly interested in its initiative to promote the use of on performance-based fire safety design. To encourage that, it is looking to draft best practice codes. Aside from that, we maintain a watching brief on some other policy areas to see whether they may inadvertently affect fire safety and the fire protection market. One example is environmental legislation, which considers the steady state but forgets about the disruptive effects of fire, which can destroy what was otherwise a well-insulated building made of renewable products, releasing considerable carbon dioxide and other pollutants.
Communication Activities
Our work is largely passive, in that we do not organise events or conduct public relations exercises aimed at the EU's institutions. Instead we respond to consultations. The Construction Products Regulation only allows us to write standard test methods, not to set performance targets. Therefore for a sprinkler, a key component of a fire sprinkler system, we can only write a standard which sets out how to test whether it controls or extinguishes a fire, we cannot specify what is a good result from a fire test. National regulators do not have relevant expertise and do not wish to set pass criteria - they expect the experts to do so. But the CPR does not let us. ISO standards are able to specify what is good performance. We would rather not adopt ISO standards in Europe because it is very expensive to attend ISO meetings, which can be held in other continents. We also take part in sectoral fire safety events, such as the EU Fire Safety Week each autumn. On one occasion we arranged for a fire sprinkler demonstraction unit to be brought near to the European Commission, so that those present could see how a sprinkler extingishes a fire.
Interests Represented
Promotes their own interests or the collective interests of their members
Member Of
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Fire Sector Confederation Institution of Fire Engineers Italian Fire Sprinkler Network Society of Fire Protection Engineers Business Sprinkler Alliance National Fire Sprinkler Network Belgian Fire Sprinkler Network POLIG Rociadoressalvanvidas.org British Automatic Fire Sprinkler Association Verenigde Sprinkler Industrie
Organisation Members
www.eurosprinkler.org
Additional Information
As stated in section 10, we only keep a watching brief on EU legislation, since Member States have legislative competency for fire safety. EU legislation can indirectly impact fire safety, for example through the CPR, which causes much confusion and hinders the creation of suitable European standards. EU environmental legislation can also impact fire safety if it encourages technologies that can lead to more and more dangerous fires. EU safety legislation, such as potential bans on PFAS, can also affect fire safety. We support the ban on PFAS but need to find alternative solutions and establish their design and use criteria in revisions to standards. In practice most of our time spent on EU activities is spent on standards, with meetings usually held online and only occasionally at CEN in Brussels. We participate in one annual EU lobbying activity, EU Fire Safety Week, usually held in November.
Commissioner Meetings
No recorded meetings with EU commissioners.