Policy Updates

<p>Although ventilation and airtightness are covered in most countries by various regulations focused on energy performance and/or indoor air quality, the effectiveness of these regulations is often called into question. A number of studies have shown significant deviations between assumed and actual characteristics of the building or equipment, possibly resulting in non-compliance to the regulation and/or degraded performance.</p>

<p>The Joint Research Center (JRC) is organising this meeting on 23-24 February 2015 in Brussels (GEN 567.01). A technical working group which JRC is now setting up is intent on providing input on the development of Best Environmental Management Practices (BEMP) for electrical and electronic equipment (EEE – note this encompass more equipment than pure EEE for example display cabinets, cooling towers…) manufacturing. The resulting document will specify best environmental practices which can be implemented by companies to minimise the environmental impact of electrical and electronic equipment manufacturing and WEEE processing. This work is part of a project that supports the development of sectorial reference documents (SRD) according to art. 46 (1) of the EMAS Regulation.</p>

<p>Members interested in ventilation may be interested in submitting an abstract for the 36^th AIVC Conference.</p>

<p>On 22 January 2015 the last stakeholder consultation on the Fan Regulation Review took place. It was attended by 80 industry representatives covering fan manufacturers and OEM manufacturers integrating fans in their products (e.g. air conditioning, cooling towers…).</p>

<p>In the Autumn of last year, DG Energy launched a 2-year Ecodesign Preparatory Study on Smart Appliances which will provide an analysis of technical, economic, environmental, market and societal aspects that are relevant for a broad market introduction of smart appliances. The study is carried out by a consortium led by VITO in cooperation with Viegand & Maagoe ApS, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, MINES-ParisTech and the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy GmbH.</p>

<p>The opportunity to discuss with European and national policy makers, representatives from industry, businesses and consumers' representative bodies, professional organisations, NGOs, local and national authorities, academia, research institutions and relevant international organisations, on the issues faced by the heating and cooling sector, the largest end-energy use accounting for half of the EU's energy consumption ahead of electricity and mobility, with the participation of Miguel Arias Cañete, European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy and of Dominique Ristori, EC Director-General for Energy.</p>

<p>Because some of the members also produce gas fired equipment, we provided in May 2014 the European Commission proposals to replace the Gas Appliances Directive with a directly applicable Regulation (see GEN 471.00).</p>

<p>The Eurovent General Secretariat did not receive any comment regarding the review the default primary energy factor (2,5).</p>

<p>With GEN 559 we informed you about the development of EU GPP criteria for Office Buildings. We communicate that the<em> </em>consultation on revised technical background report and criteria proposals will run until 27 February 2015.</p>

<p>The background to the creation of GPP for buildings can be traced to an Ecobuilding project financed by DG Environment of the early 2000s. With time the scope of buildings was narrowed down to office buildings of public administrations (2011). The December 2014 GGP draft criteria are wider and would apply to all office buildings of ownership.</p>

<p>Market surveillance is vital to functioning of the Single Market and helps to protect responsible businesses from unfair competition by unscrupulous economic operators who ignore the rules or cut corners. A lot of EU legislation has an article dealing introducing market surveillance, for example implementing measures under Ecodesign.</p>

<p>The application of the 98/34/EC Directive has also been extended to new standardisation work undertaken by National Standard Bodies (AENOR, AFNOR, DIN, UNI…) at national level. These notifications are registered centrally by the CEN Management Centre and a "Monthly Notifications Register" is circulated in English to the CEN Members and the European Commission. The National Standard Body generally provides the relevant associations with a copy of these updates.</p>