Policy Making

Working Plan

Both the Ecodesign Directive and the Energy Labelling Framework Regulation lay down criteria for adopting measures for specific groups of energy-related products. They also require that priorities are established through regularly updated rolling Working Plans, following consultation with stakeholders. The Commission’s work in this field is currently focused on executing the workstreams identified in the 2022-24 Working Plan presented in March 2022.

Ecodesign and Energy Labelling Working Plan 2022-2024

Commitees and expert groups

Ecodesign and energy labelling rules are adopted by the Commission according to specific rules laid down in the framework legislation, and only after extensive consultation and involvement of various expert groups and/or a regulatory committee (depending on the type of measure in question).

Link to general information about comitology and expert groups

Ecodesign and Energy Labelling Consultation Forum – Expert Group X03609 (from 2019)

Ecodesign Consultation Forum – Expert Group E01798 (2008-2018)

Regulatory Committee on Ecodesign and Energy Labelling of Energy–related Products

Expert group on Energy Labelling (E02854)

Expert Group on laboratory alignment for the measurement of tyre rolling resistance (E02519)

Impacts

Whenever the Commission proposes new Ecodesign or Energy Labelling measures, an attempt to quantify the expected impacts is made in the accompanying impact assessments.

In addition, but based principally on these impact assessments, estimates for the aggregate impacts are regularly updated and presented in the so-called 'Ecodesign Impact Accounting' (EIA) Overview and Status Reports. These reports provide both an overview for the policies as a whole and detailed insights for specific product groups.

The EIA reports and related analyses can be found at this webpage.

What is Market Surveillance ?

National market surveillance authorities verify whether products sold in the EU follow the requirements laid out in Ecodesign and Energy Labelling regulations.

If you have introduced a product to the European market, your product may be selected for inspection (market surveillance) by the relevant authorities.

Market surveillance refers to inspections or other verification activities undertaken by market surveillance authorities (MSA's) to check the compliance of products sold on the EU market with the relevant EU legislation.  

The purpose of a market surveillance activity is to make sure that the requirements of the EU legislation are fulfilled in practice. 

The scope of a market surveillance inspection may vary and can include the product documentation/information and/or the physical product. 

While the legal requirements of the Energy Labelling and Ecodesign legislation are specified by the European Commission for the entire EU market and are therefore binding for all EU member states, compliance inspections for products are arranged by the national MSA's of the member states or in collaborative actions of several MSA's from different member states. The latter are often supported by EU-level funding programs.  

In addition, tools for MSA's are in place to share information and results among the individual Authorities and with the European Commission. 

It is the formal duty of suppliers to cooperate with MSA's and to take immediate action to remedy any case of non-compliance.

EU Commission's support

In the last years, the Commission has deployed significant efforts to improve the functioning of market surveillance in the EU. The 2019 market surveillance Regulation, the Digital Services Act and the GSPR all contain provisions that increase the powers of market surveillance authorities and give them more tools vis à vis non-compliance including online-non-compliance. Since 2021, the EU Product Compliance Network (EUPCN) aims at structuring the coordination and cooperation between market surveillance authorities, as well as and streamlining of market surveillance practices3. With respect to energy labelling, the establishment of the European Product Registry for Energy Labelling, the well-known EPREL database, is also intended to facilitate market surveillance.

Read more

A brief update on new and concluded EU-funded actions supporting market surveillance on Ecodesign and Energy Labelling rules:

• Concerted Action on market surveillance (EEPLIANT3): the final publishable report and video, summarises findings from market surveillance activities on air-conditioners and comfort fans, tumble dryers, water heaters and storage tanks, ventilation units, lighting sources, and local space heaters. Product-specific deliverables have been sent to the concerned policy officers.
  Cross-cutting activities included the development of IT tools (including a webcrawler), collaboration with customs authorities, an updated e-library and an exchange programme for Market Surveillance Authorities (MSAs). 
  The follow-up Concerted Action EEPLIANT4, started in May 2024 and runs for 5 years, bringing together MSAs and related organisations in 21 MS and Turkey. 
• 1^st market surveillance testing campaign (2022-24): the final report (internal only), includes test results and policy feedback on household washing machines, electric hobs, range hoods, air-to-water heat pumps and combination-heaters. The ongoing 2^nd testing campaign is expected to finish in May 2025.
• 3^rd market surveillance testing campaign (2025-26): building on the previous two campaigns, this focuses on ovens & hobs (electrical), range hoods, air-to-water heat pumps (5-10kw & 10-15kw), combination-heaters (20-30kW), chillers (100-200kW); it started in January for 23 months and is coordinated by PROSAFE. Test reports will be shared when available.

International work on energy efficient products

To exchange experiences in the establishment, implementation and development of product efficiency policies and thereby also contribute to delivering the global goal of doubling energy efficiency (“2xEE”) agreed as part of the Global Stocktake at COP28 following the Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge,   the Commission supports and participates in international product policy fora such as the IEA’s Energy Efficient End-use Equipment (4E) Technology Collaboration Programme  and the Super-efficient Equipment and Appliances Deployment (SEAD) Initiative.

For more information on appliance policies globally, please refer for example to the CLASP Policy Resource Center which features a comprehensive database on appliance and equipment policies.  

Methodology (MEErP)

The Methodology for the Ecodesign of Energy-related Products (MEErP) was developed to provide operational guidance to the European Commission and contractors providing it with technical assistance in performing the preparatory study for the Ecodesign of a product. The full methodology reports and calculation template are available online. The MEErP has evolved over time with the involvement of stakeholders. The administrative and legal stages following the preparatory study are not covered by the MEErP. Nevertheless, the MEErP is designed so that its outputs can be integrated in a European Commission Impact Assessment.

The MEErP is comprised of 7 tasks. The first 4 tasks are to gather data and carry out initial analysis. These address:

• Task 1 ‐ Scope (product definitions, standards and legislation);
• Task 2 – Markets (economic and market analysis, including volumes and prices)
• Task 3 – Users (product demand side, consumer behaviour and local infrastructure);
• Task 4 ‐ Technologies (product supply side, includes Best Available Technology (BAT) and Best Not-yet Available Technology (BNAT));

Apart from providing the inputs for tasks 5 to 7, tasks 1 to 4 have an additional purpose of capacity building. The reports of Tasks 1 to 4 provide policy makers and stakeholders with the background to understand each other’s problems and take part in a dialogue.

• Task 5 – Environment & Economics (base case Life Cycle Assessment & Life Cycle Cost);
• Task 6 – Design options (improvement potential);
• Task 7 – Scenarios (Policy, scenario, impact and sensitivity analysis).

Tasks 5 to 7 are intended to provide the analysis whether and, if so, which Ecodesign requirements should be set for the energy‐related product in question. In task 5 the ‘base case’ is identified through a synthesis of the results of Tasks 1 to 4. The base case is a conscious abstraction of reality and the point‐of‐reference for assessing improvement potential and the policy, scenario, impact and sensitivity analysis.

Preparatory or review studies, where these have been prepared and published separately from Impact Assessments, can be found here.

A partial update of the MEErP was published in May 2024. Read more about support tools for experts.

Ongoing Policy Developments

For more information about ESPR, please check this link.