The Commission presents a Staff Working Document regarding the establishment of a working plan under Directive 2009/125/EC (the ‘Ecodesign Directive’). To recall, the Directive specifies that the Commission shall publish a working plan setting out, for the three following years, an indicative list of energy-related product groups which will be considered priorities for the undertaking of preparatory studies and eventual adoption of implementing measures.
The product groups that have been identified as priorities for the adoption of implementing measures were laid out in:
· Article 16 of the 2005 Ecodesign Directive (8 product groups);
· the first working plan for the period 2009-2011 (10 product groups).
Therefore, a total of 18 broad indicative product groups have been identified so far.
The indicative list of priority product groups to be considered between 2012 and 2014 covered by this working plan is:
· window products;
· steam boilers (< 50MW);
· power cables;
· enterprises' servers, data storage and ancillary equipment;
· smart appliances/meters;
· wine storage appliances (c.f. Ecodesign Regulation (EC) 643/2009)
· water-related products.
The working plan also establishes a list of conditional product groups, where launching a preparatory study is dependent on the outcome of ongoing regulatory processes and/or reviews.
The outlook for the regulatory work to be completed is as follows:
Transitional period (2005-2008):
· the Commission plans to adopt, by the end of 2014, a further 18 implementing measures (12 ecodesign and 6 energy labelling) and recognise 2 voluntary agreements concluded by the industry, for the product groups from the transitional period);
· 11 ecodesign and energy labelling measures will be revised by 2014.
First working plan (2009-2011):
The Commission plans:
- to complete all preparatory studies launched for product groups from the first working plan;
- to adopt by the end of 2014, some 13 implementing measures (10 ecodesign and 3 energy labelling measures) and recognise 2 voluntary agreements that may be concluded by the industry, for the product groups from the first working plan.
Second working plan (2012-2014):
The Commission will initiate preparatory studies building on the indicative list of product groups identified in this working plan which will end with the study on water-related products. Depending on the outcome of the preparatory studies and the results of the impact assessments, the Commission will adopt ecodesign and/or energy labelling implementing measures.
Lastly, the Commission invites proposals for self-regulatory measures on any product group, which could deliver the policy objectives faster or in a less costly manner than mandatory requirements.