Developing test procedures to measure the energy performance of products is fundamental to delivering the energy saving potential from setting energy performance standards and labeling requirements. And yet such test procedures are not always sufficiently well aligned, in time and in substance, with the policy requirement they are intended to support. In this paper the effectiveness of the EU approach to developing such standards is assessed and a portfolio of options for improving the alignment between test procedures and EU Ecodesign and Energy Labelling requirements are outlined. The intention of the paper is to help inform the discussion in Europe, for example in the context of the ongoing simultaneous review of the EU’s Ecodesign and Energy Labelling Directives during 2014 and 2015.

This paper was written for CLASP by Edouard Toulouse, an independent consultant and long time participant in the regulatory process in Europe.