Implementing Acts

The European Commission (or in exceptional cases the Council of the European Union) may be given the powers to adopt implementing acts by the EU legislator — through specific rules included in a legislative act (the ‘basic act’). These acts aim to create uniform conditions for the implementation of the legislative act in question, if and when this is necessary.

Implementing acts are often of an administrative or technical nature and may take various forms, such as authorisation decisions to place certain products on the market, or models for certificates required under EU law.

Each regulated product group in the Ecodesign Directive has its own “implementing act”. This is a piece of law, that makes the Ecodesign criteria mandatory.

The ESPR is a framework legislation, meaning concrete product rules will be decided progressively over time, on a product-by-product basis, or based on groups of products with similar characteristics.

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.

The Ecodesign Forum

The Ecodesign Forum will be the main arena for consulting stakeholders on the development of rules under ESPR. It will gather a wide range of stakeholders and key actors, with the aim of contributing to the preparation of requirements and working plans.

The ESPR Working Plan

To ensure the public and stakeholders are well informed of what is planned under ESPR, the Commission will adopt and regularly update working plans, setting out lists of products and measures that will be assessed.

Digital Product Passport

Technical preparation for the roll-out of the Digital Product Passport (DPP) is already underway by the Commission and will include the adoption of rules on the identifiers and data carriers that will be needed, work on access rights to DPP information, as well as the establishment of a DPP registry and web portal, amongst other supporting activities.