Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-23-Speech-4-483"
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"en.20090423.69.4-483"2
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".
Mr President, honourable Members, I would like to start by thanking the rapporteur, Mr Csibi, for his outstanding work on this proposal and by saying how very pleased I am that his work has made agreement possible at first reading.
Due to the quick adoption of the proposal at first reading, the Commission can now implement its sustainable industrial policy and get straight to work on coming up with other specific steps to save energy and reduce CO
emissions.
Let me conclude by observing that the close cooperation between Parliament, the Council and the Commission sped up the negotiations. I am very pleased to be able to tell you that the Commission feels able to support all of the amendments put forward by the rapporteur, Mr Csibi. Thank you.
The content of the proposal – from a purely legalistic point of view – is limited. It essentially consists of extending the scope of the existing Eco-design Directive beyond the energy-using products that it currently covers to include all energy-relevant products. From a political point of view, though, this change is of the utmost significance. It represents an important step on the road towards the third industrial revolution in Europe, to the transformation of our European national economies into national economies with low-CO
production.
I have a vision of how the European product of the future will look. The European product of the future, bearing a ‘Made in Europe’ label, will be the most innovative, safest and also the most energy and resource-efficient product around. I am convinced that a leading role for Europe in energy efficiency and in the thrifty use of resources will not only benefit the environment, but also our employment figures. Environmentally-friendly products and environmentally-friendly processes are currently booming economically, even in this crisis, and this is set to continue.
To my mind, this directive is a good example of integrated product politics. It has already proved its worth and we are seeing good results when it comes to energy-using products. The directive provides a framework for the laying down of eco-design requirements that take account of the actual environmental impact of a product throughout its entire life cycle. As Mr Csibi has already said, the directive paves the way for a voluntary initiative by industry. It limits officially specified requirements to those products in which a significant saving potential could be realised in an economically viable way.
The directive currently in force is already making an important contribution to achieving the European reduction targets, through the abolition of light bulbs, boilers and numerous other energy-inefficient consumer products. Expanding the scope of the directive to cover all energy-related products brings with it an enormous potential for further reducing energy consumption and thereby CO
emissions.
To recap, every product that is relevant to the consumption of energy now falls within the scope of the directive. This therefore also includes those products that do not consume energy directly when used, but which influence energy consumption indirectly. So, for example, requirements can now be laid down for products that use water and for windows. To give just one example: simply increasing the proportion of windows with double-glazing could give rise to an additional 30% of energy savings by 2020. That is the equivalent of a saving of 55 000 gigawatt hours, which represents a saving of 27 megatonnes of CO
or the output of two to three nuclear power stations. That shows the enormous impact that the apparent innocuousness of such changes can conceal.
The Commission intends to continue its on-going work on the approximately 25 implementation measures for the eco-design directive that were set out in its working plan for the 2009-2011 period. In addition, after consulting the Eco-design Consultation Forum pursuant to Article 16 of the directive, it will lay down what products are to be included in the second working plan by 21 October 2011.
By 2012 the Commission will also review, pursuant to Article 21, whether it would be appropriate to extend the scope of the directive to products that are not relevant to energy consumption but that do have a bearing on resource conservation.
As agreed in the negotiations that led to agreement at first reading, the Commission is issuing a statement. Parliament is aware of the statement. I will pass it on to the Bureau after this sitting."@en1
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