Quality is a vital issue to be addressed by all Constuction professionals working in Europe today.

Construction quality and quality standards provides clear, concise guidance to the making and use of codes, regulations and technical specifications in Europe.

Construction quality and quality standards is about quality in construction. It is also about codes and technical specifications,1 which help—and sometimes hinder—practitioners in the achievement of quality. It describes their making within the national scene and the wider, European scene, and the many different organizations involved.Construction quality and quality standards marks a path through the European Union Forest of regulations, directives, harmonized standards, CE marks and other legislative tools. It is not an easy task. The path chosen is first to look at long-established native trees, particularly in the UK but also in France, Germany and other Member States, and then to look at those freshly planted by the Brussels foresters, particularly where they are intended to replace native varieties.

Before doing so, the meaning of quality in construction is discussed, and how it is achieved —or not achieved—in traditional practice.The initiatives affect people as citizens, and as workers; and firms as businesses, and as employers. They affect the quality of the products made in, or imported into the EU, and the work done on those products.