Scoping study of specific product groups identified as possible priorities under ESPR

The Ecodesign for sustainable products regulation (ESPR, EU 2024/17811) aims to make sustainable production and use of products the norm in Europe. The implementation will be based on working plans, with the first one being published within 9 months after entry into force. In this working plan the Commission should lay out timelines and a list of product groups, which are to be prioritised for the setting of ecodesign requirements. The list shall also include product aspects and product groups which are to be considered priorities for the setting of horizontal ecodesign requirements. Furthermore, the legal text sets out criteria for the prioritisation of products as well as a list of product groups to be included for prioritisation, unless a justification is provided against doing so.

Given that some of the proposed product groups are very broad and not necessarily homogenous in their functional properties/core aspects, the Commission Services are looking into potential sub-grouping and granularity analysis (scoping) within these groups to generate disaggregated data in terms of market insights, environmental, energy and climate impacts and other criteria as per ESPR Art. 18, which can support the prioritisation decision and scoping (including ranking/comparison of product sub-groups). The same applies to selected horizontal measures.

The objectives of the study are:

• Further refined potential scoping of certain product groups or horizontal performance aspects (e.g. recycled content of ICT products), including identifying most relevant sub-groups within larger groups.In focus of the study are furniture and mattresses, tyres, plastics & polymers, and electrical and electronic equipment (EEE)
• Develop and assess potential approaches towards further segregation of product groups (granularity) into subgroups including discussion of most-suitable segregation approaches and most-relevant sub-groups for ESPR regulatory purpose.
• Qualitative and where applicable quantitative assessment of environmental, climate and energy impacts and improvement potential for sub-groups as well as for the whole group of products for potential inclusion in the working plan.
• Market data analysis of suggested sub-groups including EU & global production, import and export balances as well as forecasts.
• Proposed prioritisation ranking of sub-groups within one product group and across different product groups in terms of potential ESPR regulatory action, based on the environmental, climate and energy impacts, the improvement potential and the market size.