European Commission (EC)

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.

During the recent F-Gas Roundtable it was assumed that most illegal refrigerants relate to automotive air conditioning. The recent report by the Environmental Investigation Agency EIA shows that, according to customs declarations, the issue of illegal imports in Europe is more widespread than previously estimated.

The Regulation 2019/661 provides details for the smooth functioning of the electronic registry for quota. It contains an update regarding refusal, suspension and cancellation of registrations to avoid abuse by beneficial owners that apply for quota.

Under the IED and the Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control 2008/1/EC (IPPC), a set of the Best Available Techniques (BAT) reference documents, the so-called BREFs, have been developed. The BREF on industrial cooling dates from 2001, the one on energy efficiency from 2009. It is possible that these would be subject to a review.

Pre-charged equipment exported outside the European Union is included in the quota system set up by F-Gas Regulation 2014/517. A consequence is that the quota available in Europe is reduced by those exported. The Commissioner Cañete has recently reiterated that the exemption in article 15 applies to bulk gases only.

On 26 March, the Commission hosted the first stakeholder meeting for the second phase of the development of the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI). The meeting aimed at presenting stakeholders with an overview of the previous study focused on the calculation methodology, and to present how the study team aims to structure this study on the practical implementation.

On 26 March 2019, the project websites were updated with the Task 1 to Task 7, including a reissue of the Task 1 and 2, which were released in February 2019.  The second and last stakeholder meeting will take place in April 2019, and the study should be finalised before the summer break. 

With Article 19a, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2018/844 (EPBD) introduced the requirement to perform a feasibility study on the possible introduction of inspections of stand-alone ventilation systems before the end of 2019.

After eight conferences in Europe, the 9th International conference on Energy Efficiency in Domestic Appliances and Lighting (EEDAL) took place in Irvine, California, USA. EEDAL is becoming an international event and the 10th EEDAL conference will take place in China, co-organised with the China National Institute of Standardization.

The European Commission monitors and reports on the impact of Ecodesign and Energy Labelling measures, with a view to improve its understanding of the impacts over time and to fine-tune forecasting and reporting. The interest for the Eurovent members relates to forecast that is presented in the 2018 report and how this may affect ongoing and new review studies.