Communication from the Commission on the implementation of the ENERGY STAR programme in the European Union in the period 2006-2010

The increasing energy consumption of office equipment and the global nature of the information and communication technologies (ICT) market provide a strong rationale for international regulatory cooperation in this domain. It is against this background that the EU and the US signed an Agreement on the coordination of energy-efficiency labelling programmes for office equipment in December 2000.

The Agreement, which was renewed in 2006 for a second 5-year period, provides the basis for the implementation of the ENERGY STAR programme in the EU. ENERGY STAR is a voluntary energy-efficiency labelling programme run by the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA). It is implemented in several other economies, including Japan, Canada and Australia, through agreements similar to that with the EU.

On the basis of the Agreement, the EPA and the European Commission jointly manage the ENERGY STAR programme for office equipment. That includes cooperating on the development of product specifications and the mutual recognition of products registered in the EU and the US.

As the Agreement will expire in December 2011, this communication assesses the merits of its possible renewal on the basis of:
- Experience in the implementation of the programme in the EU
- An assessment of the effectiveness of the programme in improving the energy efficiency of office equipment
- Planned modifications to the US Energy Star programme.

European Commission: Joint Research Centre: End-use energy efficiency activities at the European Commission http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/energyefficiency/

EUR-Lex: COM(2011)337: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2011:337:FIN

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