As the professional entertainment lighting industry continues to seek an exemption for specialist lighting from the European Union’s Ecodesign regulation, an industry task force has said the situation is “far more positive” and “greatly improved” following the latest round of talks with the EU.
The EU Directorate-General for Energy has now passed a revised draft of the regulation, with its content expected to be revealed in a few weeks as it progresses through the committee stages of the process.
The Professional Entertainment Lighting Products Ecodesign task group – the body representing the industry during the public consultation – has confirmed there will be a ‘comprehensive’ list of exempted lamp base types, but some specialist lamps used for non-entertainment purposes may not be included.
The full content of the regulation will be publicly available from November and the directive is set to become law in September 2020. A further update on Ecodesign will be given during the PLASA Show taking place at London Olympia on 16-18 September.
The industry task group comprises Adam Bennette (PLASA), Christian Allabauer (OETHG), Randell Greenlee (VPLT) & Silke Lalvani (PEARLE). It released the following statement:
“On 20 June 2018, the period of public consultation for the proposed Ecodesign regulation – that will affect lighting products of all types – expired. The EU DG Energy department has passed on a revised draft to the next stage of the legislative process. We expect to know its content within a few weeks as it progresses through the committee stages of the process of turning it into a law. Although much still remains to be known, the situation now is far more positive than many had feared and greatly improved since our public meetings earlier this year.
“Our petitioning team made a clear case for exemptions for our industry – including for stage, studio, film and live event purposes – and we have received strong indications that the main arguments of the case have been accepted. There will be a list of exempted lamp base types that will include many of the specialised tungsten and discharge lamps we use. We can expect the list to be comprehensive, but we should also expect that a few types we have been using will not be exempted if they are in use for other common non-entertainment purposes. There will be an exemption for colour tunable light sources, but the details have not yet been provided.
“The text of the regulation will be published publicly in November this year and is to be enacted in law in September 2020. More specific details will be available shortly, and these will be disseminated as soon as they are confirmed. There may be more work to do and more details to clarify but, until we see the revised draft, it would be prudent to remain calm and patient.”
