Today's Le Monde has a juicy example of one of the upcoming policy priorities in the European Commission's in-tray. A study* has apparently been submitted to the Commission recommending the introduction of EU-wide standards to reduce the amount of energy consumed by...household electric coffee machines (we kid you not).
The article notes that Barroso & Co. will make a decision on this delicate matter over the next few months. The Commission could either opt for introducing a new regulation or choose to negotiate with producers on a voluntary basis.
We recently noted that the euro crisis, and particularly France and Germany's response to it, has sidelined the European Commission in favour of national governments. Le Monde's front page editorial applies this theme to the coffee machine/energy issue. It concludes,
"That's how things go in a Europe of which the Commission is no longer the engine. But let's reassure ourselves, the aforementioned Commission finds something to do. These days, it bustles about regulating the energy consumption of our electric coffee machines. Our filter and espresso machines are too voracious of kilowatts; we need - we're told - to introduce a new rule as a matter of urgency. Some days, being a European is a matter of faith."* Update 16:10: Here is a link to the study mentioned by the article. It looks like a huge research project...
6 comments:
Follow the money, which Kommisar has shares in an electrical manufacturer ?
An electrical manufacturer that just happens to have reached a level of coffee making energy efficiency that will not easily be equalled by others.
This ridiculous coffee machine directive, along with the totally purposeless end of the 60-watt light bulbs that we've all been happily using all our lives upto now, surely shows the irrelevance of the EU & its staff.
Just when the the EU's ill-begotten bastard-child, the euro, is in genuine existential danger, & in any healthy organization it would be a clear time for ALL HANDS TO THE PUMPS, all the EU's ill-managed & ill-prioritizing staff can worry about is light bulbs & coffee machines! Talk about fiddling while Rome burned!
With such blindness as this, even the rats that infest the EU's buildings can see that the EU will surely not survive much longer -thank goodness!
It's time to wake up and smell the Commission.
Buy the CommCoffee, a new blend of twenty seven coffee beans and acorns ground to dust to be served from it's own unique EcoComm Coffee machine, just place your hand under the percolator for half an hour to warm 2ml of delicious coffee to 12 degrees C, it's grainy and leaves a bitter after taste but will save the planet.
Only 125 Euro for 500grms.
Any chance of the unelected Kommissars (each paid 19,940 Euros each month)deciding that the Strasbourg "parliament" should be closed down to cut the 19,000 tonnes of carbon emissions it causes ?
I thought not.
THIS IS THE BIGGEST LOAD OF BUNKUM I HAVE READ ALL DAY. Sorry, I had caps on by mistake.(although quite appropriate) It is however, a fine example of how huge amounts of taxpayers money is being totally wasted. The first report alone has 62 pages. I didn't wade through the other 6 or 7. My God, let's get out of this madhouse. Cameron thinks the country doesn't want to be asked'in or out'He must be deluded!
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