The first batch of products to be subjected to a production and import ban will be inefficient 100W bulbs. Lower wattages will follow, until all incandescent and inefficient halogens have disappear from the EU market by 2012.
The EU executive justifies the decision on the grounds that replacing energy-guzzling traditional bulbs with more efficient ones will cut the electricity bills of a European household by somewhere between €25 and €50 a year. Moreover, the EU will slash its annual CO2 emissions by around 15 million tonnes, it argues.
Although the various interests concerned have been generally happy with the aims of ban, the Commission's execution of the move is under fire from all sides.