Brussels, 20/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 17 October, EU member states endorsed the European Commission's proposal for a regulation aimed at improving the energy performance of external power supplies (an external power supply is a device that converts power input from the mains power source into lower voltage output for household and office products such as mobile and cordless phones, notebook computers, modems etc.) With the energy efficiency standards approved today, the electricity losses related to external power supplies will be reduced in the EU by 9 TWh, that is approximately 30%, by 2020. The savings are equal to Lithuania's yearly electricity consumption and would lead to approximately 3.2 Mt CO2 emission savings per year. This approach allows manufacturers to adapt their products to the new requirements in time. The regulation builds on the results of an in-depth analysis of the technical, economic and environmental aspects of external power supplies, which was carried out in collaboration with stakeholders and experts from around the world. This approach allows manufacturers to adapt their products to the new requirements in time. Official adoption of the text, which now requires endorsement by the European Parliament, is scheduled for the beginning of 2009. This regulation is the fourth applied under Directive 2005/32/EC on ecodesign requirements for energy consuming products, and follows those recently approved the Ecodesign Regulation Committee on stand-by consumption, simple digital decoders and other product categories which will soon be available. (E.H./transl.rh)