EN Official Journal of the European Union C 161/97

Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a Community energy-efficiency labelling programme for office equipment

COM(2006) 576 final — 2006/0187 (COD)

(2007/C 161/24)

On 19 October 2006, the Council decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee, under Article 175(1) of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for Transport, Energy, Infrastructure and the Information Society, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 21 February 2007. The rapporteur was Mr Voles.

At its 434th plenary session, held on 14 and 15 March 2007 (meeting of 15 March 2007), the European Economic and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 83 votes with 2 abstentions:

1. Conclusions and recommendations

1.1 The EESC welcomes the new agreement with the USA to continue the coordination of the energy-efficiency labelling programmes Energy Star for a second period of five years and the Commission's endeavour to introduce more stringent technical specifications for the office equipment in line with technological progress and in more flexible manner. The EESC agrees with the Proposal to recast the Regulation (EC) 2422/2001 that adapts the Community Energy Star programme to the new agreement with the following remarks.

1.2 While the registration on the Energy Star database is a prerequisite for participation in public tenders in USA the Proposal speaks only about encouragement to use energy efficiency requirements not less demanding than Energy Star for public procurement of office equipment. The EESC suggests to make it more binding for all public procurement on office equipment to include the condition that the product is Energy Star qualified.

1.3 There are several energy efficiency labelling schemes in the EU like eco-label, eco-design and many national labels. The Commission tried to coordinate between the Community labelling programmes but the results are not obvious. The EESC calls the Commission to coordinate these labelling schemes more efficiently to avoid any confusion among the consumers.

1.4 The public awareness about the Energy Star logo is very limited therefore the EESC calls for the retention of the obligation on both the Commission and the Member States to publicise the logo and enable to finance its promotion from the appropriate programmes for energy efficiency like Intelligent Energy Europe and Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign.

1.5 The EESC calls for the review of the composition of the European Community Energy Star Board (ECESB) as the advisory body to include representatives of all Member States and the interested employers and employees organisations.

1.6 The EESC calls the Commission to increase its support for the technological development leading to more energy efficiency of the office equipment through 7th Framework Programme and other programmes supporting science, research and innovation.

1.7 The Commission and Member States should monitor product's eligibility for registration by performing the necessary checkings and tests and publishing their results positive or negative that would enhance the credibility of the Energy Star label.

2. Introduction

2.1 The Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on a Community energy-efficiency labelling programme for office equipment recasts Regulation (EC) No 2422/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 November 2001 (1), which laid down the detailed rules for the programme for labelling the energy efficiency of office equipment (including computers, monitors, printers, photocopiers and faxes) with the Energy Star logo. The European Union joined the Energy Star programme, in operation in the USA since 1992 and extended to other countries, through an agreement with the USA on 19 December 2000. The EESC adopted its opinion on this regulation in 2000 (2).

2.2 The Commission was designated as the Managing Entity responsible for the implementation of the Energy Star programme. Regulation (EC) No 2422/2001 created the European Community Energy Star Board (ECESB) as an advisory body composed of representatives of manufacturers, experts, traders, consumers and environmentalists in the Member States to evaluate the programme's implementation and propose new technical specifications to reduce the energy consumption of office equipment.

2.3 In its Communication on the implementation of the Energy Star programme in the European Community in the period 2001-2005 of 27.3.2006, the Commission proposed renewing for a further five years the agreement with the USA on the Energy Star programme, which expired in June 2006, on the grounds that: — energy efficiency is one of the main pillars of sustainable energy as defined in the Commission's Green Paper on Energy Efficiency; — office equipment accounts for a major share of electrical energy consumption in the service sector and households, and this share is constantly growing; — Energy Star is a means of coordinating the efforts of the Community and the Member States to boost energy efficiency and — provides a framework for such coordination with the USA, Japan, Korea and other key markets; — since most manufacturers can be expected to adhere to the technical requirements set by the Energy Star programme, it will make a substantial contribution to reducing the energy consumption of the whole sector; — the voluntary nature of the Energy Star programme is a fitting complement to the mandatory labelling of products with energy labels enshrined in Directives 92/75/EC and 2005/32/EC on ecodesign requirements and brings greater transparency to markets.

2.4 The new agreement was approved by the Council on 18 December 2006 and signed in Washington on 20 December 2006. Providing for more stringent technical requirements on products, its main change is the introduction of specifications for energy consumption not only on standby, but also in other important modes, especially in on mode. Annex C to the agreement includes stringent and innovative requirements for computers, monitors and imaging equipment (photocopiers, printers, scanners and faxes) which could make savings of up to 30 TWh in the EU-27 over the next three years, according to ECESB estimates.

2.5 The ECESB suggested that the Energy Star programme for the new period should be implemented more effectively and enable a quicker adaptation of technical specifications to technological development and market change. Simplification of the Energy Star programme should result in savings for both the Community's administration and the Member States.

2.6 The Proposal for a Regulation amends the following articles of the Regulation 2422/2001: — Art. 6: Promotion of the logo. The Commission proposes to abolish the obligation of Member States and the Commission to promote the logo, as the programme is voluntary and promoting it is in the interests of manufacturers. — Art. 8: The ECESB will no longer produce a report on the market penetration of Energy Star products. This will be put out to tender. The Commission will also not be required to keep the Council and the European Parliament informed of the ECESB's activities, since all the information is available on the Commission's ECESB internet portal. — Art. 10: Working plan. The Commission and the ECESB will together draw up a working plan for three years whose implementation will be monitored and published at least once a year. — Art. 11: Preparatory procedures for the revision of technical criteria. The Commission and the ECESB may take the initiative to amend the Agreement and, in particular, the common technical specifications. The obligations for the ECESB regarding revision of technical specifications have been reduced. — Art. 13: Implementation. This Article is repealed because Member States are not under any obligations on which they are required to report to the Commission.

3. General comments

3.1 The EESC welcomes the Council's decision to continue the Energy Star programme and the new partnership agreement with the USA. Given the increasing amount and use of office equipment, raising its energy efficiency is the right way to reduce the growth in electricity consumption. The EESC therefore supports the Commission's endeavour to introduce into the new agreement more stringent technical specifications for the various categories of office equipment in line with technological progress.

3.2 In its opinion on Regulation EC No 2422/2001, the Committee stressed the need to update the agreement from time to time by raising energy-efficiency specifications in line with technological development and this requirement remains valid also for the new Energy Star programme.

3.3 While registration on the Energy Star database is a prerequisite for participating in open tenders in the USA, there is no such requirement in the EU. The Committee welcomes the fact that the Regulation charges the Commission and public institutions at national level with implementing energy efficiency requirements at least as stringent as those set out within Energy Star for open tenders for the purchase of office equipment. The Committee expects the Commission itself to set an example and apply these requirements in the open tenders it runs, including those involving the Community's development aid.

3.4 The EU Energy Star programme is one of a number of labelling programmes concerning the energy efficiency of products, many of which also cover office equipment; these include Community eco-labels, eco-design and national labels such as the Nordic Swan, Sweden's TCO, Germany's Blue Angel and others. The Commission apparently sought to coordinate Energy Star with other Community labelling systems, but the results are not obvious. The EESC therefore calls on the Commission to try to coordinate these activities more efficiently in order to compare, coordinate and use common technical specifications so that consumers and users have a clearer overview of the energy and ecological standards of products on offer and are not bewildered by the many labels placed on products. It calls the respective authorities of Member States to peruse the Energy Star specifications where appropriate.

3.5 The agreement presupposed far-reaching and dynamic promotional activities to make consumers and users more aware of the logo. The EESC finds the results achieved by both the Commission and the Member States to be inadequate. There is very little public awareness of the logo and it does not in actual fact influence the choice of office equipment purchased, which in turn makes manufacturers less keen to promote it. Neither consumer nor business or employer organisations are involved in the promotion. The Committee therefore calls for the retention of the obligation on both the Commission and the Member States to publicise the logo and to step up its promotion. It recommends to make these activities eligible for projects financed from the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) programme, Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign and other programmes.

3.6 There is the energy calculator available on www.eu-energystar.org for individual sample calculations but the manufacturers should be guided to include the data about Energy Star specifications into the manuals with instructions how to make the use of the equipment in the most energy-efficient way.

4. Specific comments

4.1 In its present composition, the ECESB does not adequately represent employers', employees' organisations, interested NGOs and all the Member States. The Committee therefore requests the Commission to reconstitute it to make it more transparent and as representative as possible.

4.2 The Commission should increase its support for the technological development of more demanding specifications for energy efficiency also through programmes for science, research and innovation — especially the seventh Framework Programme.

4.3 In this context, a clearer distinction should be made between the Energy Star logo on older equipment and that on equipment which meets the more stringent criteria which are introduced in Annex C to the new Agreement. Some labelling schemes use to indicate the date of the approval of the specifications. The Committee recommends discussing this with partners from the USA.

4.4 The Commission should regularly publish information on the savings made by applying more stringent energy-efficient specifications for office equipment under the Energy Star programme and give specific examples of energy savings from the public sector, businesses and households.

4.5 The Energy Star agreement provides for partners to monitor a product's eligibility for registration. The Regulation should therefore include tasks to be performed by the Member States relating to such monitoring, as well as basic guidelines for carrying it out. There are no Commission documents that provide information on checks or monitoring of products registered in the database. If such data exists, it should be made available on the programme's website; if it does not, it would be useful to test equipment and publish the results. Failure to do so could detract from the logo's credibility.

4.6 The EESC recommends to keep the original obligation of the Commission to produce and submit to the European Parliament and the Council a report monitoring the energy efficiency of the office equipment and proposing measures complementary to the programme before the end of the five years validity of the Agreement.

Brussels, 15 March 2007. The President of the European Economic and Social Committee Dimitris DIMITRIADIS

(1) OJ L 332 of 15.12.2001.

(2) OJ C 204 of 18.7.2000.