THE European Parliament's Environment Committee has come out in favour of a draft directive to increase the energy efficiency of a wide range of electrical products including air conditioning.
MEPs are also pushing for environmental benchmarking of products to be done at EU level, rathe than by manufacturers. They also altered the legal base to make it easier for governments to set stricter national requirements than those at EU level.

An attempt to restrict the number of ways that firms can use to prove product conformity with the directive was defeated and MEPs also made it clear that products may escape the attentions of the law if already covered by voluntary agreements.