Hardly any decision has damaged the popularity of the European Union among the population as much as the "light bulb ban".

Nevertheless, the European Commission remains undeterred that it was right to set the European minimum requirements for energy efficiency for light sources so high that the classic light bulb could no longer meet them.

According to the authority, the EU cannot achieve its ambitious climate protection goals without detailed specifications for washing machines, televisions or vacuum cleaners.

On the contrary: The Commission now wants to expand the Ecodesign Directive, which enables it to set minimum requirements for energy or resource consumption, to be significantly expanded.

So far, it has applied to products that consume energy.

In the future it should be the "widest possible number of goods".

Henrik Kafsack

Business correspondent in Brussels.

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This emerges from an internal draft for the new version of the Ecodesign Directive, which the Commission intends to officially present at the end of March.

The draft is available to the FAZ.

The Commission could then not only define mandatory minimum requirements for the consumption of energy or resources, but also for numerous other sustainability criteria from repairability, durability, recyclability and the proportion of recycled primary products to hazardous ingredients such as certain chemicals and CO2 -Footprint.

In the future, for example, it could make specifications for the construction of devices so that raw materials can be easily recovered and the devices can be easily disassembled and repaired.

The new specifications could also affect textiles.

Digital Product Passport

This would give the European Commission enormous power.

The European Parliament and the EU member states could review and reject their proposals.

Because, like the highly controversial taxonomy proposals, these are so-called delegated legal acts, the hurdle for this would be very high.

With the proposal, the Commission is following a request made by the European Parliament at the beginning of last year, which was supported by all the important political groups.

This justified the extension of the ecodesign requirements with the fact that around 80 percent of the environmental impact of products is determined in their design.

The EU must start there and put an end to the throwaway society.

With its vote, Parliament also advocated the introduction of a digital product pass, which should contain information about the ecological or social footprint of products and whether and how they can be repaired.

The Commission is now addressing this as well.

The digital product passport is intended to create transparency over the entire life cycle of a product and can be read by consumers using a QR code, for example.

In the proposal, the Commission also addresses the criticism of the practice of companies such as Amazon of destroying returned or unsold new goods.

Initially, however, she only wants to oblige companies to provide information on how many and which products they destroy in a year.

That will keep them from destroying new products, the paper says.

For MEP Anna Cavazzini (Greens), that doesn't go far enough.

"In the further negotiations on the Ecodesign Directive, we will work to ensure that the Commission presents effective rules against the destruction of unsold goods," she says.

The European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, the body of the EU states, can fundamentally revise the Commission's proposal before it enters into force.

Cavazzini also insists that something be done about the premature wear and tear of products, which is often lamented but difficult to prove.