Objectives
The ESPR aims to significantly improve the circularity, energy performance and other environmental sustainability aspects of products placed on the EU market.
By doing so, a significant step will be taken towards better protecting our planet, fostering more sustainable business models and strengthening the overall competitiveness and resilience of the EU economy.
A sustainable product is likely to display one or more of the following characteristics:-
- Uses less energy
- Lasts longer
- Can be easily repaired
- Parts can be easily disassembled and put to further use
- Contains fewer substances of concern
- Can be easily recycled
- Contains more recycled content
- Has a lower carbon and environmental footprint over its lifecycle
Law
The ESPR replaces the currentEcodesign Directive 2009/125/EC and establishes a framework for setting ecodesign requirements on specific product groups.
It enables the setting of performance and information conditions – known as ‘ecodesign requirements’– for almost all categories of physical goods (with some exceptions, such as food and feed, as defined in Regulation 178/2002), including to:-
- Improve product durability, reusability, upgradability and reparability
- Make products more energy and resource-efficient
- Address the presence of substances that inhibit circularity
- Increase recycled content
- Make products easier to remanufacture and recycle
- Set rules on carbon and environmental footprints
- Improve the availability of information on product sustainability
For groups of products that share enough common characteristics, the framework allows horizontal rules to be set.
The ESPR also contains a number of other new measures:-
Implementation
The ESPR is a framework legislation, meaning concrete product rules will be decided progressively over time, on a product-by-product basis, or horizontally, on the basis of groups of products with similar characteristics.
The process will begin with a prioritisation exercise, followed by publication of a working plan sets out the products and measures to be addressed under the ESPR over a given time period. Development of product rules will then start, based on inclusive planning, detailed impact assessments and regular stakeholder consultation. This will happen through an Ecodesign Forum.
Timeline
Key dates related tothe Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation:-
18 July 2024
New Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation enters into force
5 December 2023
See AlsoThe EU Taxonomy RegulationCommission welcomes provisional agreement for more sustainable, repairable and circular products
30 March 2022
Adoption ESPR proposal (as part of Sustainable Products Initiative)
14 September 2020–22 June 2022
Public consultation and roadmap (Sustainable Products Initiative)
11 December 2019
Adoption European Green Deal
Contact
For questions about EU environmental policy, please contact Europe Direct.
