Construction insurance and sustainability

Welcome to the Elios website!

The Elios project, which has been realized by CEA (Centre d'Etudes d'Assurances) and CSTB (Centre Scientifique Technique de Bâtiment) at the request of the European Commission, offered the first opportunity to study the building insurance systems of the 27 EU Member States as well as their impact on sustainable development.

The full report is available on this website in English and a summary is available in French and in German. > find out more

 

What are the main conclusions of the inventory of national regimes of liability and insurance in 27 EU Member States?

• Extreme diversity of national regimes but common objectives and needs in terms of security and guarantees, demonstrated by:
• Existence of specific legal and contractual provisions relative to liability of constructors in almost all EU Member States.
• Widespread joint and several liabilities in the construction sector.
• Development of insurances covering construction risks: existence of widespread or compulsory  construction insurance schemes in 9 Member States addressing in particular the sector of dwellings.

• Regulatory role of insurance in the context of sustainable development: influence of insurers and of their risk selection and control function affecting methods of design and performance of construction works.

What are the main orientations emerging from the Elios research?

Creation of European agency for construction insurance with the following main missions addressing four practical needs of the construction and insurance sectors:

• interface between the European Commission and the Member States in the matters relating to construction insurance.
• single point of contact for information about cross-border construction activities.
• handbook of quality labels and indicators at the European level.
• European observatory and database of construction defects relative to eco-technologies.

Developments following the Elios study
 

On 23rd March 2011 in Brussels a meeting of the Monitoring and Steering Group Members was organised under the auspices of the European Parliament and the European Commission in order to discuss the conclusions and orientations of the Elios research as well as main directions following the Pilot Project "Ecotechnologies and access of craft and small enterprises to insurance"

Read more about the new pilot project entitled " Facilitating access to insurance by self-employed builders and small building firm so as stimulate innovation and the promotion of eco-technologies in the European Union", on Elios 2  website.