The Coolproducts campaign is supportive of the highest possible ecological requirements in products through mandatory legislation. Regulation is proving to be indispensable in order to achieve outcomes that go beyond business-as-usual, to ensure transparency of the decision making process and also to guarantee compliance by product manufacturers.
However, another option is emerging within the EU Ecodesign policy process. Under the Eco-Design of Energy Using Products Directive, the European Commission has the right to promote and endorse voluntary agreements from industry, also called self-regulation initiatives (SRIs), as an alternative to mandatory legislation, if certain criteria are met. The first four product categories that the Commission is considering covering this way are imaging equipment (printers and photocopiers), complex set top boxes, medical imaging equipment and industrial machine tools.
In a letter sent in February to Philip Lowe, The European Commission’s Director-General for Energy, the coolproducts campaign expressed several concerns about the process to consider, eventually recognise and treat such voluntary initiatives as credible replacement of a mandatory legislation. The political steps and interpretation of the safeguards in the Directive remain unclear for environmental NGOs.
We have good arguments to be cautious: examples of voluntary agreements in the past (for instance on car pollution or televisions) have proven terribly ineffective. In particular, there are essential safeguards currently in place in order to design mandatory Ecodesign measures (such as the existence of a detailed preparatory study and an environmental impact assessment). These should not be given up in favour of a "lighter" but arguably more vague data analysis, and commitments provided by industry unilaterally, which may not be as reliable and enforceable as legislation.
Coolproducts partners are calling on the Commission to be much clearer and demanding about these safeguards, and maintain its leadership to avoid giving a free ride to some industrial sectors . This is essential in order not to jeopardize the Ecodesign policy objectives and level of ambition.
In the meantime, partly to respond to the arguments in our letter and requests from Member States, the European Commission has presented a short “guidance” document, which was very briefly discussed at a meeting at the end of March. We still consider that this document does not clarify many points raised and does not provide enough to convince us of the credibility of a voluntary, self-regulation approach under the Ecodesign directive. In particular, the document does not answer the fundamental question: how will it be demonstrated that a SRI can deliver the same objectives as a mandatory measure?
Read more in our paper: 'Position of European Environmental NGOs on the endorsement of voluntary initiatives under the EU Ecodesign directive'.