Robert Sturdy

Energy Labelling Directive – EU Member States support new rules to safe energy

At the end of March the Commission submitted for endorsement by the Committee of Member States a draft Directive for the energy labelling of our household fridges, televisions, washing machines and dishwashers.

Mr Sturdy explains why he is in favour of this new legislation.

“The measures taken in the field of eco-design and energy labelling are vital in order to reach the environmental objectives set by the Parliament’s climate package from last December.

“As a Member of the Environment Committee, I am very much in favour of any improvement in European legislation that leads to a reduction in the consumption of energy.”

The new rules are expected to cut EU wide electricity losses by nearly a third by 2020. The resulting savings of around 9 TWh (Tera-watt-hours) will be enough to power countries like Portugal or Lithuania for a year and will reduce annual CO2 emissions by more than three million tonnes!

By using energy labels manufacturers are obliged to show how efficient or inefficient their products are. These labels have already existed for “white goods” (like freezers, fridges etc.) since the mid/end 90s, but not yet for TVs.

At present, products are labelled from A-G according to their energy efficiency (you may have noticed these colour coded stickers on new fridges and boilers). This helps consumers with their buying decisions. The energy label was so successful that nowadays most products meet the energy efficiency requirements of “A” class. The European Commission now sees a need to go “beyond A” to allow manufacturers to develop even more efficient products. Therefore they have proposed that a new labelling should be introduced: “A-20%, A-40%” shows how much “better than A” a product really is (20% more efficient, 40% more efficient…).

However, Mr. Sturdy thinks that this is not the right way to help the consumer’s choice: “In my opinion it would be clearer to reform the A-G system rather than amend these new categories. This will only complicate purchase decisions when it is meant to make life easier for consumers. This again shows how confusing European law can be!”

ITRE Committee voted in favour of a motion for a resolution in Brussels, which means that the Commission has to redraft their proposal.

“No wonder, the draft resolution was sent back to the Commission. Even industry was not happy with the proposal and consumers would have had difficulties in finding clear, comprehensive information to choose energy efficient household appliances,” Robert Sturdy added.