Brussels, 05/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Council adopted its common position with a view to adopting the draft Energy Star regulation, that will allow it to implement the agreement between the EU and the United States on coordination of ecology labelling programmes for office equipment. The regulation specifies the rules for using the Energy Star logo, owned by the American Environment Agency, for identifying equipment that is the most energy efficient. The electrical consumption of office equipment (computers, screens, fax machines, scanners, etc.) currently represents 50 TWh annually. The aim of the labelling programme is to make energy savings of around 10 TWh annually in the year 2015. The agreement with the United States allows manufacturers, retailers or dealers in office equipment complying with the technical specifications given in the agreement to be included in the Energy Star programme and to use the Energy Star logo. Furthermore, it provides for consultation between the EU and the United States when the specifications of the logo are modified to keep in line with technical progress. In February, the EP took a stance in first reading (McNally report), voting amendments mainly on the follow-up of activities by the joint EU/US committee. Upon agreement between the Council and the EP, the procedure came to a close without a second reading by the EP.