41 Amendments of Kathleen VAN BREMPT related to 2017/2087(INI)
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas, according to the Commission’s Ecodesign Working Plan 2016-2019, the ecodesign and energy labelling framework will deliver 175 Mtoe per year of primary energy savings by 2020; those savings will result in lowering the energy bills of each household by €490 per year, while delivering €55 billion yearly extra income for industry, wholesale and retail sectors and creating 800.000 possible new direct jobs in those sectors; it will also help reach our energy and climate goals by reducing the energy import needs by 1.3 billion barrels of oil, eliminating 320 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually;
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 a (new)
Citation 7 a (new)
– having regard to the Commission communication “on the 2017 list of Critical Raw Materials for the EU” (COM(2017)490 final),
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas measures should cover the whole lifecycle of products in order to improve resource efficiency in the Union; given that more than 80% of the environmental impact of a product is determined at the design stage, circular economy aspects, durability, reparability, re-use and recycling need to be taken into account from the start;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 b (new)
Citation 7 b (new)
– having regard to the Council conclusions on eco-innovation: enabling the transition towards a circular economy adopted on the 18th of December 20171a _________________ 1a http://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/32 274/eco-innovation-conclusions.pdf
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 7 c (new)
Citation 7 c (new)
– having regard to the Emissions Gap Report 2017 issued by UN Environment on November 2017,
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas, aside from making our products more sustainable and resource efficient, we need to drastically dematerialise our society, strengthening the principles of the sharing economy and the service economy;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Recital A d (new)
Recital A d (new)
Ad. whereas the transition to a sustainable and circular economy will present many opportunities but also social challenges; nobody should be left behind, and Member States should pay special attention to low-income households at risk of energy poverty when they present programmes to encourage the uptake of the most resource-efficient products;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Acknowledges that the technology of ICT products is fast-evolving, which may result in legislation on those products already being outdated when it comes into force; urges therefore the Commission to speed up the ecodesign regulatory processes for those products and look into alternatives, which can be complementary to ecodesign measures, in order to monitor resource efficiency when products are in use, for instance by using big data techniques; 1a __________________ 1a Some ICT products, such as mobile phones, are so fast-moving and their technologies change so quickly, that ecodesign legislation, which can take up to 4 to 5 years to be established, is already outdated when it comes into force. Therefore, an accelerated process is required. Moreover, the resource use of some ICT products varies according to who uses them and how, or which applications are run on them. It might be useful to measure resource efficiency when the products are in use, for instance by using big data techniques to gather information from different users at different points in time (while of course respecting privacy aspects).
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas Voluntary Agreements and other self-regulation measures are presented as alternatives to implementing measures in the context of this Directive, existing Voluntary Agreements have not proven to be quicker and more cost- effective than regulatory measures;
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Regrets that little progress has been made in including circular economy aspects in the review of existing product- specific measures and new product groups; despite the promising specific attention given to circular economy aspects in the Ecodesign Working Plan 2016-2019, the Commission’s circular economy package and the importance of this topic, the work on this matter has been disappointing; urges therefore the Commission to speed up actions to ensure that the Ecodesign Directive makes a significant contribution to the circular economy;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2b. Stresses that, aside from ensuring recyclability, the actual use of recycled materials should also be promoted; on the one hand, recyclability and easy dismantling of products needs to be incorporated in the design phase so that end of life products may be converted into high quality secondary raw materials, and on the other hand, the actual reuse of these secondary raw materials in new products needs to be promoted and endorsed, for example by setting a compulsory minimal usage of recycled materials for new products;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2c. Stresses that, in order to ensure the use of recycled/secondary materials, the availability of high quality secondary materials and a well-organised market for those materials is imperative and should be put in place;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. StressesInsists on the need to optimise and safeguard the decision-making process; emphasises that ecodesign measures should be adopted individually and within the deadlines; calls on the Commission to justify delays and to set asidethe market surveillance of products placed on the market through a minimum 5% of the products placed on the market being tested, better cooperation between the Commission and the Member States and among the Member States, market surveillance at pan-European level by the Commission or an independent agency, oversight of the national market surveillance authorities and the result of their work being made publicly available; stresses that test protocols should be closer to real-life conditions;1a __________________ 1a Market surveillance practices need to be ameliorated. On the onecessary resources for implementation; believ hand, more harmonisation and cooperation between the national market surveillance authorities, in addition, that voluntary agreements should no longer be given priority;s needed, and, on the other hand, coordination and market surveillance at pan-European level needs to be organised. If this latter task is carried out by the Commission, sufficient resources need to be assigned for that purpose.
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
Ha. whereas a new database under the new Energy Labelling Regulation is being developed and the ICSMS market surveillance database is used in some, but not all Member States;
Amendment 48 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Highlights the Commission’s estimates that 10-25% of products on the market do not comply with ecodesign and energy labelling requirements which amounts to around 10% of the envisaged savings being lost; urges for compliance to be better monitored and penalised in case of breach of the legislation;
Amendment 49 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Stresses that, when tests are being performed, the measurement and calculation methods, as well as the testing environment, should reflect real-life conditions; products shall be tested under conditions and environment that simulate as close as possible those of the average consumer; test methods of both suppliers and market surveillance authorities should be established and executed in such a way that intentional or unintentional manipulation or amelioration of the test results is detected and eliminated, and allowed deviations between tested and declared results should be limited to the statistical margin of error of the measurement equipment;
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. Calls on the European institutions and national governments to set the right example by requiring the highest resource efficiency standards in their public procurement procedures;
Amendment 57 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Acknowledges that products are becoming ever more complex and are often part of a system instead of standing on their own, whereas the amount of resources they use depends on the other products or modules in the system or on how the systems function as a whole; urges therefore the Commission to look at ways to translate ecodesign measurements into this system approach, such as using a Points System 1a; __________________ 1a Modern heating or lighting solutions in buildings are no longer single stoves or light bulbs but complex structures of interacting elements, in order to determine and evaluate the resource parameters and ecodesign requirements; one needs to look at the system as a whole and not only at the different elements separately.
Amendment 59 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5c. Stresses the need to develop a multi-criteria assessment method which is capable of incorporating and documenting multiple energy-resource and materials-related ecodesign requirements for a product or system, and which is also able to attribute an average score; such a methodology should be based on an approach that does not hinder innovation and continues to allow manufacturers to offer consumers a broad range of high quality products in any particular category; the Points System or another type of multi-criteria tool could provide the basis for developing such a robust methodology 1a; __________________ 1a As we are broadening the scope of requirements (energy use, durability, recyclability, recycled content, modularity, etc.), it becomes more difficult to compare and score products. A product may score very well on recycled content but very badly on energy use (or the other way round). It might be useful to score each parameter separately and then combine the separate scores to give a global average score in order to, on the one hand, see how a product scores on each of the different requirements, and, on the other hand, ensure a minimum level of quality in terms of energy, materials and resource use. Finally, it must be possible to compare products or systems to others in the same product group.
Amendment 61 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 d (new)
Paragraph 5 d (new)
5d. Stresses the importance of attributing responsibility to the producers and expanding guarantee periods and conditions, obliging manufacturers/sellers to take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of a product, boosting reparability, upgradability, modularity and recyclability and ensuring that raw materials and waste management remain within the European Union;
Amendment 62 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 e (new)
Paragraph 5 e (new)
5e. Urges the Commission to look into the concept of product passports, attaching RFID tags or dynamic QR codes to products containing information on materials used, reparability, modularity, and other elements which are useful in case of change of ownership or at the product’s end of life;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Further underlines the strong link between the Ecodesign Directive and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive; a well-functioning inspections’ system under the latter Directive might favour the replacement of the inefficient installed appliances and lead to planned replacements; in this regard, calls on Member States to boost inspections and introduce support schemes to incentivise the market uptake of efficient products;
Amendment 81 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Is concerned by the sometimes significant delays in the development and in the publication of implementing measures, which create uncertainty for economic operators, mean missed opportunities for energy savings and can cause standards to lag behind technological developments; notes that a major part of the delay is attributable to the limited resources available inside the Commission;
Amendment 85 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Calls on the Commission to avoid delays in the adoption and in the publication of implementing measures and recommends defining clear deadlines and milestones for their finalisation and for the revision of existing regulations;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Welcomes the Commission Recommendation (EU) 2016/2125 on guidelines for self-regulation measures concluded by industry and asks the Commission to strictly monitor any voluntary agreements recognised under the Directive;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Underlines that voluntary agreements should always cover a minimum market share and be preferred to legislation only when deemed capable of guaranteeing an equal level of savings; the decision-making process for voluntary agreements should be faster than the one for legislation, and the same level of civil society participation should be maintained; the efficacy of surveillance on voluntary agreements should be strengthened;
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Believes, therefore, that the implementation of the Ecodesign Directive – in addition to continued efforts to improve energy efficiency – must now address the full life -cycle of the products within its scope, with the setting up of minimum resource criteria covering, inter alia, robustness, repairability and upgradeability - taking into due account the availability of compatible spare parts over the whole life-cycle of a product -, but also sharing potential, reuse, scalability, recyclability and use, minimum content of recycled materials; , use of critical raw materials and the substitution of substances of concern;
Amendment 138 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Believes that particular attention must be paid to water-using products where significant environmental benefits and important savings for consumers could be achieved;
Amendment 140 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9b. Believes that the development of a 'system-approach' to consider not only the product but the whole system required for its functioning in the Ecodesign process becomes an increasingly critical success factor towards resource efficiency and urges the Commission to include more of such system-level opportunities in the next Ecodesign work programme;
Amendment 148 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10a. Reiterates its call on the Commission to broaden the scope of the Ecodesign Directive so as to cover all main product groups, in particular those with high circularity potential and not only energy-related products;
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Insists on the need to strengthen the surveillance of products placed on the internal market through better cooperation and coordination between Member States and between the Commission and national authorities;
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 – indent 1
Paragraph 12 – indent 1
– that national authorities be required to use the ICSMS database to share all the results of product compliance checks and testing carried out for all products covered by Ecodesign regulations;
Amendment 170 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 – indent 3 a (new)
Paragraph 12 – indent 3 a (new)
– that, similar to the stipulations in the Regulation on the approval and market surveillance of motor vehicles, consideration should be given to requiring a minimum number of products placed on the market being tested;
Amendment 172 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 – indent 3 b (new)
Paragraph 12 – indent 3 b (new)
– that the European Commission should carry out its own independent market surveillance, especially in cases where Member States lack human and Financial resources as well as testing facilities; in the long term, the set-up of a dedicated EU Agency for market surveillance with sufficient human and financial new resources should be envisaged;
Amendment 177 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 – indent 4
Paragraph 12 – indent 4
– that deterrent measures be adopted, including: sanctions for non-compliant manufacturers proportional to the impact of non-compliance on the entire European market and a European collective redress and compensation scheme for consumers who have purchased non-compliant products, even beyond the legal warranty period; such sanctions should be combined with measures affecting the brand reputation of a product, for example by communicating publicly the brand name of non-compliant manufacturers;
Amendment 181 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 – indent 4 a (new)
Paragraph 12 – indent 4 a (new)
– that particular attention be paid to non-EU imports and products sold online;
Amendment 182 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 – indent 4 b (new)
Paragraph 12 – indent 4 b (new)
– that coherence be applied with the European Commission’s proposal on enforcement and compliance in the Single Market for goods (Goods package), which scope includes Ecodesigned product. Proposals related to joint testing facilitated at EU level and compliance network could be retained for Ecodesign too;
Amendment 186 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Highlights the importance of appropriate standards and stresses that test protocols as close as possible to real-life conditions should be developed; underlines that test methods of both suppliers and market surveillance authorities should be established and executed in such a way that intentional or unintentional manipulation or amelioration of the test results is detected and eliminated, and allowed deviations between tested and declared results should be limited to the statistical margin of error of the measurement equipment; in this regard, welcomes Commission Regulation(EU) 2016/2282 on the use of tolerances in verification procedures, and asks Member States to fully implement it;
Amendment 196 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 a (new)
Paragraph 15 a (new)
15a. Stresses that the transition to a sustainable and circular economy will present not only many opportunities but also social challenges; as nobody should be left behind, the European Commission and the Member States should pay special attention to low-income households at risk of energy poverty, when presenting programmes to encourage the uptake of the most resource efficient products; such programmes should not hinder innovation but should continue to allow manufacturers to offer consumers a broad range of high quality products; they should also favour the market penetration of energy-related and water-using products capable of achieving greater resource efficiency and savings for consumers;
Amendment 197 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15 b (new)
Paragraph 15 b (new)
15b. Calls on the Commission to assess the feasibility of a product passport as a tool to disclose materials and substances used in products;