Concept of a product-related toprunner model on EU level

The eco-design of products gets increasing importance. Also on EU-level, it is to a large extent agreed that environmental regulation with dynamic standards is needed which gives strong incentives for resource-efficient innovations. The German government is pushing the introduction of a top-runner approach on EU-level. Until now, an elaborated proposal for such a concept and the necessary measures of its implementation is missing. Against this background, the objective of this project is to elaborate a concept for an ambitious and effective top-runner approach on European level, to compare this concept with existing product- and energy related environmental instruments and to indicate concrete proposal for its realisation. In addition, the remaining national regulation scope left after an implementation of concrete EU-regulations should be assessed.