Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the 'Proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive on energy efficiency requirements for ballasts for fluorescent lighting'
Date: 1999-10-20
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: EC conformity marking, approximation of laws, electrical energy, lighting, lighting equipment

20.12.1999

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 368/11

Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a European Parliament and
Council Directive on energy efficiency requirements for ballasts for fluorescent lighting’

(1999/C 368/04)

On 8 October 1999, the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under
Articles 175 and 262 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 5 October 1999. The rapporteur
was Mr Bernabei.

At its 367th plenary session of 20 and 21 October 1999 (meeting of 20 October) the Economic and
Social Committee adopted the following opinion, with 103 votes in favour and one abstention.

1.

Introduction

1.1.
The Commission proposal is part of the strategy to
improve the efficiency of end-use electrical equipment, with a
view to meeting the energy policy objectives of security of
supply, competitiveness and protection of the environment.

1.2.
The initiative follows the approach already used to
establish minimum energy efficiency requirements using direc-
tives, for instance the directives on domestic boilers and
refrigerators in 1992 and 1996 respectively, and negotiated
agreements, such as those reached on television sets, video
recorders and washing machines. The Committee published
opinions (1) on these issues.

1.3.
The Commission states that minimum requirements
are essential to improve the efficiency of ballasts for fluorescent
lighting, and it has explored every possible way of reaching a
negotiated agreement with the industry to gradually eliminate
low-efficiency ballasts. However, European manufacturers are
fearful that the place they vacate on the market will be filled
immediately by imported goods. For that reason, standard
minimum requirements for all products on the European
market would be a preferable option and would also prevent
barriers to trade.

1.4.
There is general agreement on the need to abide by the
targets set by the Kyoto conference for reducing greenhouse
gas emissions. For the EU this implies cutting emissions by
8 % between 1990 and 2010. The Commission has stated that
applying the minimum efficiency requirements proposed for
fluorescent lighting could have a significant impact, in spite of
the fact that the ‘impact of standards on electricity consump-
tion will be relatively slow’ (less than 5 % of the approximate
111 TWh/y total sector consumption forecast for 2010).

(1) OJ C 155, 21.6.1995, p. 18; OJ C 102, 18.4.1991, p. 46.

1.5.
According to the Commission, low-loss ballasts, which
correspond to categories A and B in the seven-class and
four-category scheme devised by CELMA (the Committee
of EEC Luminaires Manufacturers Associations), must be
promoted, while category D ballasts should gradually be
eliminated from the European market over an initial one-year
period, with category C ballasts following during a second
four-year transitional phase.

2. General comments

2.1.
The Committee has underlined the importance of
voluntary negotiated agreements and the need to ‘adopt a
positive approach and reward those manufacturers who pro-
mote low-consumption appliances with recyclable com-
ponents’ on several occasions (2), most recently in its opinion
on the Communication on ‘Energy Efficiency in the European
Community: Towards a Strategy for the Rational Use of
Energy’. Furthermore,
in its opinion on the refrigerators
directive, the Committee called on the Commission to encour-
age industry and consumers to take an active part in the
process of assessing results and if necessary establishing a
second set energy efficiency standards.

2.2.
The Committee welcomes the spirit and aims of the
draft directive, although in view of the complexity of the
subject,
it would have preferred the matter to have been
addressed by voluntary agreements within the industry.

In view of the massive volume of imports, pointed out
2.3.
by the Commission,
that ballasts for export as
individual parts or as parts of luminaires are to be excluded
from the directive, and the possible use of the CE marking as

the fact

(2) COM(1998) 246 final. Opinion of the Economic and Social
Committee on the ‘Communication from the Commission: Energy
efficiency in the European Community — Towards a strategy for
the rational use of energy’ OJ C 407, 28.12.1998. See also the
own-initiative opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on
‘Policies for the rational use of energy (RUE) in the European Union
and in countries which are candidates for early membership’ OJ
C 407, 28.12.1998.

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Official Journal of the European Communities

20.12.1999

under other directives, the Committee strongly underscores
the need for effective market controls and appropriate moni-
toring and quality guarantee systems in all Member States,
with immediate effect and firm deadlines, in order to ensure
that European manufacturers are not thwarted in their efforts
by unfair competition and the presence on the market of
ballasts that do not conform to standards.

Since November 1995, US manufacturers have been
3.1.1.
banned from producing,
importing or selling fluorescent
lamps that do not conform to federal standards. They are also
encouraged to promote the adoption of such standards on
foreign markets, particularly in Latin America and Asia.

2.4.
It is the Committee’s opinion that these transitional
periods must provide the basic minimum time required to
adapt and reorganise production lines and spread the burden
of the new technologies, research and staff training that will
prove necessary. In the absence of appropriate Community
support for finance, training and information, this and all other
sectors involved in minimum energy efficiency requirement
improvement schemes may find their competitive capacity
eroded.

3.1.2.
At the end of 1990, meanwhile, the federal Environ-
mental Protection Agency (EPA) launched the Green Lights
Programme, whereby major electricity consumers, electricity
companies, electricity management companies, and lighting
producers and distributors are encouraged on a voluntary basis
to commit themselves to a timetable for improving lighting
energy efficiency. The programme also offers them support in
awareness-raising and promotion. As the market mush-
roomed, the cost of the various parts fell sharply and the price
of electronic ballasts more than halved within five years.

The Committee totally agrees that the energy efficiency
2.5.
requirements must be sufficiently precise to become legally
binding obligations that can be enforced in national legislation,
in accordance with the ‘new approach’ to standardisation
policy. It also supports the use of a conformity assessment
procedure based on self-assessment, avoiding compulsory
type-conformity tests by external ‘notified bodies’.

The Committee takes the view that the major effort
2.6.
required of the industries concerned to guarantee high safety
and quality standards and apply increasingly sophisticated
technology, without eliminating specific technological process-
es, should be mirrored by more substantive and high-profile
measures — along the lines of the US Green Lights Programme
— to increase awareness, disseminate information, back
the demonstration of
innovative technologies (BAT), run
information and training campaigns, and step up practical
measures, for instance under the key actions of the Com-
munity’s fifth RTDD framework programme. The principal
objectives of this standardisation measure should be incorpor-
ated into other demand-related policies for instance regarding
construction standards, public contracts, and authorisations
that are subject to compliance with environmental impact
regulations. This must also apply to actions to enhance the
EU’s position on the world market and should include a bold
policy to promote the adoption of EU standards inter-
nationally.

3. The issue as it affects third countries and applicant

countries

3.1.
In the United States, the rules for minimum energy
efficiency requirements for fluorescent lighting are laid down
in the national Energy Policy Act of 24 October 1992. This
act provided for the elimination within a three-year period of
three types of lighting (F40, F96 and F96/HO) that did not
comply with federal standards for LPW (Lumens per Watt) and
CRI (Colour Rendering Index) levels.

3.1.3.
Lastly, on 28 June 1999, the EPA launched a new
scheme to protect public health and the environment more
effectively from mercury contamination, encouraging con-
sumers to recycle fluorescent
lights and other common
products containing toxic substances voluntarily, so as to
ensure that they do not end up in landfill or incinerators.

3.1.4.
In the Committee’s view, the European version of
the EPA Green Lights Programme, which is still on the drawing
board at the JRC, must be adopted as swiftly as possible. There
is a need to look at the wider picture, and thus support
measures to improve environmental safety in the recycling of
toxic substances in fluorescent lighting, especially mercury,
while also promoting energy efficiency and environmental
protection, and shoring up the competitiveness of the Euro-
pean industry.

3.2.
The Committee would argue that the directive’s exter-
nal dimension merits equal consideration, especially regarding
the applicant countries, which are preparing to apply the
technical standards of the internal market, and whose lighting
industry is well-developed, though to rather lower standards
of efficiency. This will involve promoting standardisation by
using technology transfer, the pre-accession funds and Phare,
and extending the SAVE II programme, in order to build up
management skills and raise awareness of the proposed energy
efficiency measures.

3.3.
Similar support measures should be implemented
under the aid and cooperation programmes involving the
Euro-Mediterranean area, Mercosur and Latin America, and
also through cooperation with the ACP and initiatives in Asia.

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C 368/13

4. Specific comments

4.1. Scope

4.1.1.
As ballasts do not operate separately but in conjunc-
tion with light fittings, it is essential to clarify whether, and if
so to what extent, the restrictions and obligations imposed on
the ballast and its producer will be transferred to the luminaire
to which it is attached. This will be necessary in order to
ensure proper market supervision, for luminaires imported
from outside the EU for instance.

There are certain divergences between the various
4.1.2.
language versions of the proposed text. The translations of the
second paragraph of Article 1 must be brought into line with
the English version: the term ‘to be exported’ corresponds
exactly to the requirements of the luminaire production chain.
For the sake of consistency, the same term should also be used
in Article 3(3)(c).

The Committee believes that the directive should
4.1.3.
exclude both ballasts for direct export and those sold to
luminaire producers with a view to being exported.

4.1.4.
The exclusion from the scope of application provided
for under the second paragraph of Article 1 must be without
prejudice to the Article 3(3)(c) provision (indication of goods
for export).

regime is conducted as harmoniously as possible, throughout
the EU, and in manageable stages.

4.3.2.

In particular, the Committee would recommend:

— extending the deadline for transposition by the Member

States from 12 to 18 months [Article 8(1)];

— adjusting the deadline for banning the placing on the
market of ballasts accordingly [Article 8(1) second para.];

— introducing a further 12-month deadline for the ban on
putting into service [Article 2(1)], so that distributors and
producers can sell off stocks of luminaires incorporating
the ballasts covered by the directive;

— introducing a similar 12-month deadline to give time to
sell off stocks prior to the entry into force of the second
phase of the directive [Article 9(1)].

4.4. Monitoring and adjustment

4.4.1.
The Committee would highlight the concerns of
consumers and producers, who need proper guarantees that
EU-wide market supervision will be set up swiftly and effec-
tively when the directive is transposed into national legislation.

4.4.2.
In the absence of sufficient market control mechan-
isms, the industry could be heavily penalised in terms of
production and jobs within a matter of months.

4.2. CE marking and conformity assessments

4.5. Support measures

4.2.1.
The procedures for applying the CE marking men-
tioned under Articles 3, 5 and 6 must be clarified with regard
to:

— compliance with the ‘new approach’ directives applicable

to ballasts or lighting containing ballasts;

— alignment of declaration of conformity procedures already
applied under the other directives regarding ballasts (elec-
tromagnetic compatibility directives 89/336/EEC and
93/68/EEC)
(low voltage directives
73/23/EEC and 93/68/EEC and electromagnetic compati-
bility directives 89/336/EEC and 93/68/EEC).

and luminaires

4.3.

Implementation deadlines

In the light of market experience of applying the
4.3.1.
previous ‘new approach’ directives, it is of the utmost import-
ance to ensure that the transition from the old to the new

4.5.1.
The Committee thinks that the directive’s recitals
should include a 20th point to state specifically the need for
support and incentive schemes, in addition to assistance from
the Structural Funds, the EIB, and the relevant RTD and
energy-related programmes, to help all sectors involved in
innovation and technological restructuring to adapt to the new
Community energy-efficiency requirements.

5. Concluding remarks

5.1.
To conclude, the Committee would make the following
recommendations to the Commission, the Parliament and the
Council:

— while agreeing with the purpose and spirit of the proposed
directive, the Committee considers that
the voluntary
agreement approach would have been preferable, in view
of the complex interplay between the various measures
proposed and the ‘new approach’ directives applicable to
the industry;

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— in view of the massive volume of ballasts exported as
individual parts or as part of luminaires, the right balance
must be struck between the objectives of energy efficiency,
employment, international competitiveness and environ-
mental protection;

— it is essential to establish a coherent framework for the
development of an integrated product policy (IPP: energy
efficiency,
‘end of life’ management, use of potentially
hazardous substances, consumer protection), especially
with a view to a possible third stage in the drive for greater
energy efficiency;

— it is vital that the definitions contained in the articles clarify

the scope of application by stating which of the obligations
regarding ballasts also apply to the luminaires they are
attached to;
the relevant directives men-
tioning use of the CE marking must be coordinated and
the transposition and implementation deadlines redefined
to ensure consistency and a manageable time frame;

furthermore,

— the major efforts demanded of the industries concerned
must be mirrored by coherent and clear measures to
increase awareness, disseminate information and incorpor-
ate the relevant energy efficiency objectives into various
internal
(procurement, construction, etc.) and external
(enlargement negotiations, cooperation and aid to the
Mediterranean, Mercosur, Latin America, ACP and Asia)
policies.

Brussels, 20 October 1999.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Beatrice RANGONI MACHIAVELLI