The EU is poised to ban high-powered appliances such as kettles, toasters, hair-dryers within months of Britain’s referendum vote, despite senior officials admitting the plan has brought them “ridicule”.
The European Commission plans to unveil long-delayed ‘ecodesign’ restrictions on small household appliances in the autumn. They are expected to ban the most energy-inefficient devices from sale in order to cut carbon emissions.
The plans have been ready for many months, but were shelved for fear of undermining the referendum campaign if they were perceived as an assault on the British staples of tea and toast.
A sales ban on high-powered vacuum cleaners and inefficient electric ovens in 2014 sparked a public outcry in Britain.
EU officials have been instructed to immediately warn their senior managers of any issues in their portfolios that relate to the UK and could boost the Leave campaign were they to become public.
The decision to push ahead with the plans soon after the British vote was revealed by Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, at the weekly College of Commissioners meeting on April 20.
However, several products may be granted a stay of execution, as officials admitted the plans are a lightning rod for public anger at perceived meddling by Brussels.
At the meeting, Jyrki Katainen, the Commission’s vice president for growth, said they should push ahead with the plans for standardised energy usage limits as they could contribute significantly to emissions targets.
But he “admitted that ecodesign standards were sometimes ridiculed in the media in terms of the political and geostrategic issues the union was faced with”, according to official minutes of the meeting.
David Coburn, a Ukip MEP, earlier this year blamed the EU after finding it took his toaster four attempts to brown the bread sufficiently to spread marmalade, and the minutes show how politically fraught the issue has become.
They must “take into consideration the criticisms leveled at the EU, which was seen as intruding too much into citizens’ daily lives.” But the public might be convinced if it is pointed out that more efficient products will save them money on their electricity bills, they added.
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