OBJECTIVE: establishing European standards for the energy efficiency of household refrigerators and freezers, with a view to ensuring the implementation of the internal market, but also to reducing CO2 emissions and electricity consumption. COMMUNITY MEASURE: Directive 96/57/EC of the European Parliament and the Council, on energy efficiency requirements for household electric refrigerators, freezers and their combinations. SUBSTANCE: the Directive, based on the 'new approach' to standardization, falls within the framework of the SAVE programme. It sets energy efficiency standards as a function of the volume of the appliance, with different equations defined for each of the ten categories of appliance listed in Annex I. In order to give the appliance manufacturing industry time to adapt whilst ensuring progress to a satisfactory level of efficiencies, two levels of minimum efficiency standards are envisaged: - the first will take effect three years after the adoption of the Directive and will lead to an average improvement in efficiency of about 15%; - before the expiry of a period of four years from the adoption of the Directive, the Commission will make an assessment of the results obtained during the first stage. It will then consider, in consultation with the interested parties, the need to lay down a second set of measures. These measures will be based, in all cases, on energy efficiency levels which can be economically and technically justified at the time. Where neither the manufacturer nor his authorized representative is established within the Community, the Directive provides for the possibility of the importers being liable for the conformity of the refrigeration appliances. DATE OF ENTRY INTO FORCE: 8 October 1996. DEADLINE FOR TRANSPOSITION INTO NATIONAL LEGISLATION: 3 September 1997.

The Council adopted the Directive by qualified majority, with the Italian delegation voting against the proposal. The text of the Directive matched the common position agreed by the Council on 11 March 1996, with the exception of the two amendments tabled by Parliament at second reading, which had now been taken over.

Recalling that the basic idea was to help prevent the greenhouse effect in accordance with the Rio commitments, the rapporteur, Mr MACARTNEY (ARE, UK), explained that the 15% improvement over two years in the efficiency of refrigerators and freezers was a compromise version of the initial proposal of 10% as well as of that proposed by the Committee on Research (20%). However, in the second phase the rapporteur anticipated an overall improvement of 20%. In the meantime the Commission and industry would be invited to negotiate voluntary agreements on this matter over a period of three and a half years. If no agreement were reached the Commission would present a new directive laying down the same level of energy output, which would enter into force five years after the adoption of the present directive. The rapporteur also proposed restricting the special treatment reserved for ‘tropical’ and ‘subtropical’ refrigerators to equipment with 4-star freezer compartments. Commissioner Papoutsis stated that he was prepared to accept those amendments that referred to the second phase of the scheme, along with an efficiency improvement of 15% in the first phase, the limits imposed for 4-star refrigerators and the setting of July 1995, instead of May 1990, for the definitions of European Standard EN153.

In response to the rapporteur, Mr MACARTNEY (ARE), who had spoken in favour of the specific measures in his report on energy efficiency and energy-saving with a view to reducing CO 2 emissions by the year 2000, Commissioner PAPOUTSIS outlined the Commission’s position on Parliament’s amendments. The Commission could take over Amendments Nos 2, 3 and 4 as they strengthened the justification for the measures proposed. However, Amendment No 1, which deleted Recital 5, could not be taken over. The Commission supported Amendment No 10, which brought forward the deadline for application of the Directive, setting it at two years after its adoption, and it also agreed with the principles on which Amendments Nos 9 and 11 were based. As regards the latter, which called for a 20% energy efficiency improvement though stricter parameters from the first phase, the Commissioner felt that a 15% improvement would be sufficient to balance adequately the different objectives of reducing CO 2 emissions and protecting the interests of industries, employment and consumers. The Commission supported the proposal’s dynamic approach, which provided for a second phase, in line with the approach in Amendment No 9, but it felt that it was too difficult at this stage to determine the levels to be attained. As a result, it could not take over Amendment No 12 before establishing in detail the content of the second phase through more in-depth studies. Finally, the Commission rejected Amendments Nos 5, 6, 7, 8, 13 and 14 as they imposed excessive requirements on industry while the measures proposed by the Commission were sufficient to achieve the declared goals.

The Council noted the progress of discussions on the proposal for a directive on energy efficiency requirements for household electric refrigerators, freezers and their combinations. The aim of the proposal, which is part of the SAVE programme, is to establish minimum standards of energy efficiency for the household appliances concerned, thus helping to reduce CO 2 emissions. After a discussion, the Council instructed the Permanent Representatives Committee to continue examining the proposal.

The ESC approved the Commission proposal with the following comments: - The ESC considered that the best way to achieve positive results was to aim for complete cooperation with manufacturers and consumers. - Commission policy should focus on surveillance of the CE marking as a key task. - Alerting the consumer to the benefits of buying energy-efficient appliances should be encouraged in addition to laying down minimum standards. - More stringent standards could harm SMEs. - Measures should be taken for other household appliances. - The proposal should not affect the competitiveness of European manufacturers. - The price increases for refrigerators and freezers and the reduction in electricity costs could have a different financial impact on different groups of consumers in some Member States. - Industry and consumers should be involved in the implementation of the first level of efficiency standards described in the proposal. - Consideration could be given to extending the scope of Article 6 in such a way that not only the Member States but also manufacturers could provide information on the failure of products on the market to conform to the CE marking. In addition, the ESC urged the Commission to involve industry and consumers actively in the process of assessing the results and, if necessary, establishing a second set of efficiency standards as referred to in Article 8 of the proposal.