The European proposals refer to lighting, televisions and large home appliances.
The reason these things don't last as long is DIRECTLY related to Global Warming and energy efficiency standards.
Years ago I spent a day in a conference with a Dupont or GE engineer, an older gentlemen. There was a topic regarding energy standards that sparked some discussion that he was passionate about. The energy efficiency standards and regulations that manufacturers are held to require moving parts to be lighter and more energy efficient. This means gears, motor housings, belts/chains, bearings, components, etc. all have to be made of lighter parts. This reduces the horsepower and size of electric motors. Engineering technology has also advanced to a point where the power needs can be calculated for "just the right size". According to him, this creates the quality problems and life expectancy issues in many mechanical appliances these days.
Add the cost of electronics to govern motors for energy efficiency and the additional parts to monitor and control the use of energy and you both increase the costs and complexity as well as introduce more parts and mechanisms that are subject to failure.
In the old days, machines were over designed a little to make sure their quality was better than the competition. They sought future sales and reputation as a vital component to their profitability and longevity as a business. Today, they need to have the cheapest product and beat the competition in the short term year over year as corporate value is analyzed quarterly.
So complaining that the quality of manufactured products is contributing to global warming is like complaining that a camp fire is consuming your fire wood.
We bought a new dishwasher. Our old one could do a load in half an hour, and since we are in the habit of rinsing all the crud off of them before we put them in the machine, they come out fine. The shortest cycle on the new one is 3 hours, but it uses only about a gallon or two of water, but considerably more electricity. This is the result of water efficiency standards, a machine that uses a couple pennies less water but twenty cents more electricity and takes 6 times longer. Thank you government interference.