The ESPR is one of the key elements of the European Green Deal. The EU Parliament approved the provisional agreement on 23.04.2024. The EU Commission now has the task of successively fleshing out the Ecodesign Regulation for sustainable products.
The old Ecodesign Directive was mainly based on energy consumption criteria and products were to be manufactured according to these criteria (e.g. for washing machines, refrigerators or motors).
The new regulation concerns the entire product life cycle and includes the aspects of durability, reparability, reuse, recycling, the carbon and environmental footprint as well as water, soil or air pollution.
The transition phase for the respective product group begins 18 months after the product regulation comes into force. At present, there is still no product regulation for many areas, but work is underway on this. A generally applicable regulation for all product groups could take longer.
Manufacturers must immediately start to follow the developments within the ESPR regulation and address the challenges related to their product group.
ORGALIM has drawn the attention of all associations and organizations to the ESPR in its current newsletter and summarized the most important points of the regulation as follows:
- Setting up ecodesign requirements for the product groups in scope by means of Delegated Acts on the basis of a product-by-product approach. These could be about performance requirements (e.g. reparability and durability) and/or information requirements (e.g. environmental footprint and presence of substances of concern). Fundamental ecodesign requirements are listed in articles 5-7. (See source)
- Allowing for “horizontal ecodesign requirements”, that is, common information or/and performance requirements for products with similarities. The European Commission can also supplement the horizontal requirements through the setting of ecodesign requirements for a specific product group.
- Implementing the Digital Product Passport (DPP), a digital tool to simplify access to product-specific information related to sustainability, circularity, and legal compliance. The DPP will be regulated through product-specific Delegated Acts and is expected to be available throughout the product lifetime.
- Mandating planned market surveillance activities on the enforcement of the Regulation via specific verification rules.
- Introducing rules on mandatory green public procurement, prohibition of destruction of unsold goods, and limitation of products’ premature obsolescence.
Turkish Machinery Germany Office, 05.07.2024
Source:
Orgalim Newsletter from 01.07.2024
Further information:
2024/1781 REGULATION (EU) 2024/1781 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL,
