up to 3 Additional A+ Are Allowed on Top of A

20 November, 2009

Dear all,

on 17 November the revision of the Energy Label Directive was also concluded. As expected, the outcome of the trialogue negotiations was disappointing. The main decisions are the following:

Layout & rescaling

- up to 3 additional A+ are allowed on top of A

- no obligatory rescaling foreseen but a revision scheduled in 2014. If before 2014 for any given category 1/3 products are labelled A++ and A+++ the Commission has to start looking at new classification; in this case the Commission is invited to look at rescaling as priority option. In practice this means that the EC and MS know that in a few years the highest classes of label will be largely populated (as it happens today) and they'll have to re-open the debate again since they have not foreseen a way to adapt the label to technological development.

Public procurement procedures

- despite the European Parliament's attempt there is no obligation for MS to purchase highly efficient products in public procurement,only an invitation to do so.

- if an ad mention the energy performance or the price of a product, it must also show its energy class (i.e. A+)

The result if far from ideal but we managed to avoid major disasters like an open ended scale where an indefinite number of additional classes could be added (i.e. A+++++) and no obligation for the Commission to revise the Directive in 2014.

I've received the full official text this morning, I'll send you a more detailed analysis next week.

Meanwhile, if you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me.

Best regards,

Mariangiola

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Mariangiola Fabbri

Senior Energy Policy Officer

WWF European Policy Office (EPO)

Direct: +32 2 7400934

Mobile: +32 499 539735

Switchboard: +32 2 743 8800

Fax: +32 2 743 8819

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