European Commission (EC)

Ms Charlotte van de Water, Expert Energy & Climate for Buildings in Eurovent Belgian Member Association Agoria, regularly updates the members of Agoria explaining the links between the European and national policies. Her most recent update looks at how European Climate Policy Framework and budgets are now impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. The members are strongly recommended to read this introduction as it provides for a background to the ongoing evolutions at European level, which are often forgotten when dealing with specific directives, regulations or implementing and delegated acts.

The European Commission has just circulated the draft minutes of the meeting on reparability (5 July 2019) and on the omnibus amendments (4 June 2020). Elements of the former meetings appear in the study for the Working Plan 2020-2024. The Eurovent Product Group ‘Commercial refrigeration Equipment’ (PG-RDC) has already commented on the latter one.

The Filtration and Separation Coalition has been following the discussions and consultations on these chemicals over the past years. They have highlighted their concern in the attached document GEN – 1144.01. To Eurovent it makes sense to consider the possible consequences.

In cooperation with Orgalim, the Eurovent Team regularly provides you with an in-depth overview on all European legislative developments of relevance for the HVACR sector. The Bulletin provides for a hands-on compendium allowing the industry to assess the status quo and expected future developments. In addition to recent sector specific issues, our Team has summarised some of the key takeaways within this article.

The European Commission has issued a revised readiness notice on F-Gases. Businesses are strongly advised to double-check their readiness with regards to quota allocations, reporting obligations, verification, representatives, and certified persons under the F-Gas Regulation.

The European Commission has issued a communication on readiness at the end of the transition period between the EU and the UK. Manufacturers are strongly advised to double-check their readiness, notably with regards to customs, VAT, product requirements and conformity marking.

The European Commission and the Consortium presented the first Task reports of the Working Plan 2020-2024 The Working Plan 2020-2024 will act as a bridge for future ‘sustainable product policy initiative’. It may be noted that the Commission has told DG GROW to be ready with a ‘suitable working plan’ by October in case it would be needed.

On 8 July 2020, the European Commission published its EU Strategy for Energy System Integration. The Strategy identifies heat pumps as one the key technologies for achieving its aims. In 2021, the European Commission will review the Energy Efficiency Directive, the Renewable Energy Directive, the Energy Taxation Directive, and consider the extension of the EU emissions trading system (EU ETS) to new sectors in order to boost the deployment of heat pumps and district heating and cooling systems.

The sensitivity of the connectivity of appliances and equipment to cyberattacks has been mentioned in various meetings and seminars. The European Union has established a European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) that has been looking at this issue for over 20 years, initially focussing on the financial sectors. Since last year it has been drawing up cybersecurity certification schemes. How much these schemes will extend to HVACR equipment is not yet known.

The General Product Safety Directive 2001/95/EC (GPSD) protects consumers by ensuring that only safe goods are sold on the EU market. The European Commission is preparing a review of the GPSD that may result in a proposal for revision by the second quarter of 2021. Feedback on the roadmap evaluation is open until 1 September 2020. The public consultation questionnaire runs in parallel until 6 October 2020.