Brussels, 17/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 17 June, the European Commission and the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) decided to introduce new specifications for computers, photocopiers and printers in the EU-US Energy Star programme. Developped jointly by EU member states, EPA and stakeholders from around the world, the new energy efficiency criteria for computers, printers, photocopiers and other image processing equipment like faxes and scanners will come into force on 1 July. They should achieve energy savings of around 22 terawatt/hours for the EU over the next four to six years, enough to provide Ireland's entire energy consumption for a year. Energy efficiencies will be achieved throughout a product's lifetime (estimated to be between four and six years). Criteria for new categories of office machines, like servers and data storage, will soon be added to Energy Star. For further information, see: http://www.eu-energystar.org . (E.H./transl.fl)