News

About 60 participants took part in the conference that closes the INTAS project. The conference was accompanied by the publication of the possible methodologies that could be used to verify compliance of fans as well as other findings from the project.

After five trilogue meetings (Commission, Council, European Parliament), an agreement was reached, and the publication of the Regulation is expected by April or May. The Regulation would allow for the use of results of joint actions between Market Surveillance Authorities and others (including industry associations) for further investigations.

In the context of better regulation on F-Gas quota, the Commission is collecting feedback of all interested parties within 4 weeks. The consultation is open until 20 March 2019, and the provided feedback will be considered for finalising the regulation.

The Regulation 2019/290 was published on 20 February 2019 and will apply as of 1 January 2020. Annex I establishes the format for registration detailing all the information requirements needed in Member States for producers (Part A) and for authorised representatives (Part B). The Annex II establishes the format for reporting information of EEE placed on the market. There are no different information requirements for producers and authorised representatives.

On 8 February 2019, the Consultant released the draft final reports for Task 1 ‘Scope, policies and standards’ and Task 2 ‘Market Analysis’. The other reports will be released in the future. The second and last stakeholder meeting will take place in April 2019, and the study should be finalised by the summer break.

The revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) 2018/1844 requires the Commission to conclude a feasibility study, clarifying the possibilities and timeline to introduce the inspection of stand-alone ventilation systems and an optional building renovation passport before 2020. This study has just been launched.

To facilitate the comparison of different technologies with the same application, the consultant for the Review Studies proposes introducing the same Energy Efficiency classes for the appliances in the scope of Regulation (EU) 2015/1186 ‘Local Space Heaters’ and Regulation (EU) 626/2011 ‘Air Conditioners’. The stakeholders for Local Space Heaters met on 6 February to give an overview of different views on the proposal.

The 2018 edition of the European Environment Agency (EEA) report on fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-Gases) confirms the good progress achieved in 2017 by the European Union. A related report by the United Nations provides for a more global outlook.

The first of three stakeholder consultation meetings is set to take place on 26 March 2019. The consultants envisage to set up topic groups, for which experts can present their candidature by 15 February.

The EMC Directive applies to almost all equipment that contains electrical and/or electronic components. It states that the generation of electromagnetic disturbances of appliances must be limited to such level that other appliances can function in accordance with their intended use. At the end of January 2019, the Commission published the 2018 update of its Guide to the EMC Directive.