Energy labelling proposal debated in Committee

The European Parliament’s Industry, Technology and Research (ITRE) Committee debated Rapporteur Anni Podimata (Party of European Socialists, Greece)’s Draft Report on energy labelling earlier this month. The Rapporteur thanked the Commission for its constructive cooperation, but expressed disappointment that the Czech Presidency has so far not responded, and that there is no indication as yet on Member State positions on the proposal.

Ms Podimata supported maintaining the existing A-G energy labelling currently in operation in the EU, arguing that the system was widely accepted and that sticking with A-G labelling did not mean that policy makers could not be innovative. She also said that while the inclusion of windows in the proposal was welcome, this presented difficulties, as it is difficult to define the energy consumption of these products. The Rapporteur said that windows should be defined in a different way, taking into account factors such as weather, as a window in Denmark plays a different role to a window in southern Europe. Silvia-Adriana Ticau MEP (Party of European Socialists, Romania) stated that the EU needed to look to reduce VAT on energy efficient products. The deadline for amendments was 17 February. Parliament’s ITRE Committee is scheduled to vote on Ms Podimata’s Report on 09 March.

It is CEMBUREAU’s view that construction materials & buildings should be excluded from the scope of the Directive as they are already adequately covered under other legislation and could mislead purchasers of buildings or structures.

The Draft Report is  available here:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=//EP//NONSGML+COMPARL+PE-418.383+01+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN