EN    EN EN 
 
EN    EN  COMMISSION OF THE E UROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 16.7.2008 
SEC(2008) 2116 
  
COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT 
 
accompanying the 
Proposal for a 
 
DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 
 
establishing a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for energy related 
products 
 
SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT  
{COM(2008) 399 final} 
{SEC(2008) 2115} 
 
EN 2   EN SUMMARY 
This Impact Assessment accompanies the prop osal for the amendment of the Ecodesign 
Directive for Energy Using Products1. The amendment of the Ecode sign Directive is one of 
the elements of the Action Plan on Sust ainable Consumption and Production and on 
Sustainable Industrial Policy (SCP/SIP) which is  a joint initiative of  DG ENTR, DG ENV and 
DG TREN. The main element of the SCP/SIP is an integrated product policy. The Ecodesign 
Directive is an important build ing block of the Action Plan.  
The current Ecodesign Directiv e covers only ener gy using products (excluding means of 
transport). For these and under the condition that  no self-regulatory mechanism is offering a 
valid alternative, the Direct ive allows the setting of mandatory minimum requirements 
corresponding to the performan ce of the product that has least life cycle cost. Also, the 
Directive specifies a number of criteria and safeguards such that minimum requirements take 
into account competitiveness and social issues . This guarantees that improvements in 
environmental performance are co st-effective. While the purcha se prices of these products 
might rise in the short term, their superior pe rformance more than offsets this over the life 
span of the product by lower usage costs. 
However, the impact assessment of the Acti on Plan mentioned above has shown that the 
limited scope of the Ecodesign Dire ctive represents an important restriction on the potential 
impact that the EU's Integrated Product Poli cy can have. This impact assessment report 
therefore analyses whether the scope of the Ec odesign Directive could be extended and what 
impacts the extension could have. The objectiv e of the report is therefore to provide 
information to policy makers on the po ssible scope of such an extension. 
Three options are considered:  (1) No extension of the scope, thus only energy using products can be covered, 
(2) Extend the scope beyond energy using products  maintaining the exclusion for means 
of transport, and 
(3) Extend the scope beyond energy using pr oducts including means of transport 
Changing the scope of the Ecodesign Directiv e would not have dir ect impacts on products, 
since the Ecodesign Directive is a framework Directive. The environmental, economic and 
social impacts are linked with the implementi ng measures for specific product groups. These 
implementing measures are adopted by the Commission under the re gulatory comitology 
procedure. Before the implementing measures are adopted, stakeholders will be formally 
consulted and a specific impact assessment will be made by Commission services. All impacts mentioned in the report are illustrative examples of the impacts that could be reaped 
by having implementing measures for products of the different options. Moreover, the 
impacts would only be realised in the long r un since the adoption of implementing measures 
is done product by product and afte r a thorough assessment process.  
The analysis of the options takes into account a number of issues. Firs t, the environmental 
impacts are discussed for broad product cate gories. Second, it is reviewed whether the 
Ecodesign Directive would overlap  with existing legislation already addressing environmental 
impacts. Third the environmental improvement potential and the economic and social impacts 
of the options are assessed.  
                                                
 
1 Dir 2005/32/EC  
 
EN 3   EN The analysis of the available data indicates that significant reducti ons of environmental 
impacts are possible while at the same time also allowing economic savings for businesses 
and final consumers. Generally speaking, the potential benefits  are larger the broader the 
scope of products that can be addr essed through implementing measures. 
Although the potential benefits would be highest  in the case of covering all products (option 
3) the report shows that  the Ecodesign Directive does not appear to be complementary to the 
Type-Approval System since much of the potential benefits in the transport sector will already 
be reaped by forthcoming legislation such as  the CO2 in cars legislation and the new Euro 
standards. Within the products screened in Op tion 2 a high environmental impact that can be 
reaped cost effectively would come from energy related products such as construction 
products and water using products . Furthermore, also a number of other product groups may 
offer significant potential for cost efficient im provements, as there is evidence that their 
impact is even more significant than bot h the Labouze 2003 and the EIPRO study have 
demonstrated when looking at products such as : detergent/cleaning prod ucts, footwear/leather 
products, other food products, print-media ( books, journals, newspaper), hygiene paper, 
mattresses, batteries, and toys. Ongoing Co mmission studies will look further into the 
environmental impact and improvement potentia l of these products. Further research could 
also investigate the environmen tal and economic sustainability of  the use of concrete/cement, 
steel, aluminium, plastics and other important  materials. These product groups and materials 
are presented for illustrative purpose only.  
The screening analysis of the cost and benefits  of option 1 and 2 shows that the importance of 
the upfront costs is highly dependant on the nature of the products and even between sub-
categories of the same product type. In the illu strative cases analysed, net benefits increase 
over time with an increased uptake of pr oducts responding to minimum requirements. 
An extended scope will allow introducing implementing measures for those non energy using 
product categories that have the highest potential for imp rovement of environmental 
performance while also leading to the highest savings during the use phase. This would not 
necessarily be possible under the current Dir ective which is restricted to energy using 
products. More detailed analyses will be conducted for the impact assessments that need to be 
prepared for each implementing measure. 
At this stage, it can be recommended based on the available evidence to widen the scope of 
the Directive to energy-related products. Exte nding the scope to means of transport would 
have limited benefits. While there are also st rong indications that widening the Directive 
beyond those products coul d deliver significant benefits, it is recommended to carry out 
further investigations an d further assess the option of includ ing non-energy related products in 
the scope of the Directive following a future review.