The latest draft of the new framework Energy Labelling Regulation was discussed by the full European Parliament on 7 July.

This included a vast suite of compromise amendments that had been hammered out by the main Parliamentary Committee, many of which had cross-party support from MEPs.

There were still those resisting the use of plusses for a moment longer while others were concerned about the impact of the database requirements on business and Market Surveillance Authorities.

More recent suggestions included suppliers having to provide aggregated sales data to the Commission every year and consumers having a right to a full refund for any product proven to be non-compliant with its energy label declarations! Though it was also proposed that the energy efficiency class of a product did not need to be cited in all advertising, but only where energy-related information or price information is already disclosed.

There was also a move to insist that the eventual delegated Regulation on local space heaters should have to include electric heaters in some aspects. Some readers may remember the arguments about the length of paper required to state “this product should not be used as a main source of heating” in all the official languages of the EU when the Ecodesign Regulation for electric room heaters was being debated. The argument is obviously not yet won.

Plus, of course, the obligatory reference to “smart” – with a proposal that new energy labels should include a symbol to show that an appliance has connectivity functions.

Discussions are now underway in what is known as trialogue (informal tripartite meetings attended by representatives of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission). All parties are hoping to achieve a first reading before the end of the year. The key areas for discussion remain Articles 3 (obligations of suppliers and dealers), 5 (market surveillance), 7 (rescaling) and 8 (the product database).

The latest draft can be viewed on the website of the European Parliament.