The Commission presents a report on the review of Directive 2010/30/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the indication of labelling and standard product information of the consumption of energy and other resources by energy-related products.
It is recalled that the 2012 report on the review of the Directive 2009/125/EC (Ecodesign Directive) concluded that an immediate revision of that Directive was not necessary, but that specific aspects for which insufficient information was available at the time of the review could be reassessed in the review of the Energy Labelling Directive in 2014, such as the effectiveness of implementing measures and harmonised standards and a closer coordination between the implementation of two Directives.
This report fulfils these requirements.
Assessment of the effectiveness of the Ecodesign and Energy Labelling Directives: the assessment shows that:
- the ecodesign and energy labelling measures in place are effective in that they bring tangible and substantial energy and cost savings. These policies will deliver almost half of the 20% energy efficiency target by 2020. In total, the ecodesign and energy labelling measures in place to date are estimated to save end-users of products EUR 100 billion per year in 2020 through lower utility bills (translated to EUR 400-500 yearly savings in each household);
- there are no obstacles to the free movement of energy-related products in the European Union internal market;
- benefits outweigh the costs, both for businesses and for society as a whole;
- the vast majority of consumers (around 85%) recognise and understand the energy label, and use it in their purchasing decisions;
- the energy labelling regulations have recently been adapted to show the energy label also on the internet;
- the two Directives are complementary and their implementation is largely done in a coherent way;
- EU-added value derives from the harmonised regulatory framework bringing down costs for manufacturers and this policy has continued relevance in reaching the EU's energy efficiency target beyond 2020. It can also contribute to resource efficiency and the circular economy.
However, the report also stresses the following weak points:
- the introduction of A+ and higher classes under the 2010 Energy labelling Directive reduced the effectiveness of the energy label in motivating consumers to buy more efficient products. The design amendment that uses additional ‘+’ signs to indicate higher efficiency classes beyond the A class is less effective in motivating the purchase of higher efficiency products than the original A to G scale. Some of the pictograms used to represent other parameters in the label are also difficult to understand, for example the 'switch logo' on the television label and the drying efficiency on the dishwasher label;
- weak enforcement by national market surveillance authorities contributes to noncompliance, which is estimated at 20%, leading to some 10% of envisaged energy savings being lost. The information submitted shows that in 2009 and 2010, about a third of the Member States undertook little or no market surveillance activity on energy labelling and ecodesign. Not all Member States test products in laboratories because it is expensive;
- measures for some products have shown levels of ambition that are too low compared to what is technically and economically feasible;
- potential for further reduction of environmental impacts exists, for example on aspects of durability, reparability, reusability, recyclability, and recoverability, recycled content, use of priority materials, hazardous substances;
- in terms of efficiency, the rulemaking process is too long (on average 49 months), sometimes leading to outdated technical and preparatory work at the time of policy decisions, especially for fast developing electronic products;
- lastly, from media coverage in recent years, it is clear that the benefits of the policy have not been sufficiently communicated.
Delegated powers: the Commission considers that the delegation of powers with respect to energy labelling effectively contributes to the establishment of the necessary detailed rules on the energy labelling of products and appliances. To date, 12 delegated acts on energy labelling have been adopted. Neither the European Parliament nor the
Council has to date issued any objection to the delegated act within the four-month objection period.
Conclusions: based on the outcome of the evaluation, the Commission considers that a revision of the Energy Labelling Directive is appropriate. A legislative proposal for the revision of the Energy Labelling Directive accompanies this report, and addresses particularly the decreased effectiveness of the label and weak enforcement. With respect to the Ecodesign Directive, addressing the issues identified during the evaluation requires no legislative changes.
The Commission will take the following action:
- improve the understanding of the energy label: the Commission intends to carry out consumer testing when developing product-specific energy labels, in particular to ensure any pictograms and the label as a whole are comprehensible;
- improve enforcement by facilitating further cooperation between national market surveillance authorities through the Administrative Cooperation groups on ecodesign and on energy labelling and through dedicated joint projects, such as the EU funded project 'EEpliant';
- address the challenge of the long rulemaking process: the Commission intends to notify draft delegated regulations to Members of the World Trade Organisation pursuant to the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade at an earlier stage in the process, in parallel with consulting the Consultation Forum;
- examine the problems related to the fast development of the electronic products and the absence of a clear relationship between purchase price and energy efficiency: the Commission plans to carry out this review in the context of the upcoming evaluation of the EU Energy Star programme in 2016, and also address electronic equipment not covered by the programme.
Lastly, the Commission will continue to strengthen communication activities around the product-specific ecodesign and energy labelling measures in an effort to improve public knowledge and acceptance of the policy.