diff --git a/libpfm.changes b/libpfm.changes
index 189bed0..4dedeef 100644
--- a/libpfm.changes
+++ b/libpfm.changes
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ Fri Jun 17 08:00:28 UTC 2016 - tchvatal@suse.com
   * Intel Broadwell-DE
   * Major update on Intel event tables
   * bug fixes and many other improvements
+- Respect cflags, disable werror
 
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Tue Jan 19 18:17:58 UTC 2016 - tonyj@suse.com
diff --git a/libpfm.spec b/libpfm.spec
index 6ce1760..6437c09 100644
--- a/libpfm.spec
+++ b/libpfm.spec
@@ -75,8 +75,13 @@ This package provides python bindings for the libpfm4 package and the perf_event
 
 %prep
 %setup -q
+# disable werror
+sed -i \
+    -e 's:-Werror::g' \
+    config.mk
 
 %build
+export CFLAGS="%{optflags}"
 %global python_config CONFIG_PFMLIB_NOPYTHON=n
 make %{?_smp_mflags} %{python_config}