GEN – 800.00. In cooperation with Orgalime, the Eurovent Team regularly provides you with an in-depth overview on all European legislative developments of relevance for the HVACR sector. The Bulletin provides for a hands-on compendium allowing the industry to assess the status quo and expected future developments. In this article, our Team has summarised the key takeaways for members only.

Highlights

Since the 30 November 2016 package ‘Clean Energy for all Europeans’ was released, the activity level within Europe has been speeded up and many issues are now being treated in parallel by the Commission, Council and Parliament. Adoption of many reports on the revision of directives are scheduled for October 2017. The respective votes in the Plenary Session of the Parliament are expected to take place at the end of November. Recent development highlights are outlined below.

Circular Economy Package

The European Commission continues implementing its circular economy action plan. In parallel, the European Parliament adopted an own-initiative report on product lifespan in July. Although proposed measures are not legally binding, this report provides suggestions for the implementation of the circular economy policy. This initiative aims to encourage the production of durable, high-quality and reparable products, and to reduce built-in obsolescence. The European Parliament suggests a ‘voluntary European label’ covering the product’s durability, upgradeability in line with technical progress and reparability. Elements of the circular economy are being integrated into the review studies of implementing measures under Ecodesign, in general under the heading ‘end of life’.

WEEE2 Directive

The European Commission will not table any review proposal for this Directive. It applies from 15 August 2018.

EU Ecolabel Regulation

At present, products within the Eurovent scope are no longer covered by the Ecolabel scheme. The Commission will undertake studies on product groups jointly for green product procurement, eco-design, energy labelling and ecolabel tools to prevent inconsistencies in studies commissioned by different entities. Heating and cooling will be studied closely as well.

Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD)

About 1.000 amendments have been tabled. The draft report by the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) focusses on long-term renovations strategy, Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), electro-mobility, inspections and building automation and control system (BACS) and the smartness indicator. The draft opinion by the Committee on Environment (ENVI) focuses on healthy buildings and electro-mobility. The draft ITRE report should be adopted on 11 October and the draft ENVI opinion on 7 September.

The Council agreed on a general approach on the EPBD supporting the renovation strategies, voluntary smartness indicator and thresholds for mandatory inspections fixed at 70 kW, for both systems used for heating buildings and air conditioning systems of all buildings (ventilation equipment is not included).

Ecodesign – review regulations on space and water heaters

The consultant VHK has started with the review study. The first of two stakeholder meetings will take place in October 2017. These meetings will be accompanied by working group meetings. It can be expected that the review study will be closely followed by numerous associations and companies.

Energy Efficiency Directive (EED)

The negotiations are difficult and the Member States within the Energy Council do not wish the energy efficiency target of 30% to be no longer binding. In the European Parliament, the ITRE draft report proposes a 2030 EU 35% energy efficiency (EE) binding target, with national indicative targets. The 2030 EE policy target should be expressed only in cumulated primary energy. The draft ITRE report should be adopted on 10 October and the draft ENVI opinion on 7 September.

The 2016 study on the review of the default primary energy factor (PEF) concluded that the PEF of 2.5 is not adequate and should be revised. A revised PEF would be lower and impact on the calculations in Ecodesign and EPBD.

Renewable Energy Sources Directive (RES)

The draft ITRE report and draft ENVI opinion were discussed at the end of June, both proposing binding (35 %/45 %) targets for Member States. The Council is working on a proposal for a compromise. One proposal is that the Commission would be empowered to adopt delegated acts to establish a methodology for calculating the quantity of renewable energy used for heating and cooling and district heating and cooling, and to revise Annex VII on calculation of energy from heat pumps. The draft ITRE report and ENVI opinion should be adopted on 11 October.

Energy labelling framework directive (EL)

The revised directive should be published in the Official Journal on 28 July 2017. The framework will revert to “A to G” scaling. Rescaling will be introduced with a differentiated timing. For many products subject to Energy Labelling measures, this would be 6 years after the date of entry into force of this Regulation, so in 2023 with the rescaled label in shops and online 18 months later (2025). For Space and Water heaters (gas -, oil -, solid fuel fired boilers, heat pumps) A to G rescaled labels would be introduced by 2026 and adopted in 2029 at latest.

The product registration database should be available by 1 January 2019. The first meeting of the Ecodesign Consultation Forum sub-group took place on 4 July 2017. Three steering groups are set up dealing with suppliers, consumers and compliance. For consumer goods, the Commission will consider databases from industry associations. For heating and cooling appliances the Commission will consider the VDI 3805 approach.

Recommended Action

We recommend Eurovent members to take note of the developments that concern them and their respective Product Groups.

Related documents and links

All related documents and articles can be found in the respective sections in the right side bar.

• GEN – 800.01 – Information Bulletin 23 – 3/2017 – July 2017
• GEN – 800.02 – Legislative updte 23 – 3/2017 – July 2017
• GEN – 771.00 – Orgalime May 2017 Information Bulletin
• WEEE2 FAQ (2014): http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/weee/pdf/faq.pdf
• ROHS2 FAQ (2012): http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/rohs_eee/pdf/faq.pdf