Energy Efficiency Directive - entering trialogue negotiations

The informal negotiations (trialogue) on the final text of the Energy Efficiency Directive will start next week in Brussels. The discussions will be challenging and a final agreement will be tough to achieve. If the European Parliament wants to transform the Directive into the main legislative tool supposed to help Member States deliver the 20% energy savings target by 2020, the Council seems reluctant to any mandatory requirements. In the last vote within ITRE Committee from the 28th of February, the European Parliament agreed for binding 20% energy savings targets and introduced a series of mandatory and stricter measures that would help the Member States achieve the required savings.

When it comes for buildings renovation, the European Parliament proposes a bold and ambitious strategy that, once applied, will determine a significant decrease of energy consumption in existing buildings. The main proposals include:

• Reaching an 80% energy consumption reduction by 2050 in the existing building sector
• Member States to develop by 1st of January 2014 national plans with interim targets and clear milestones for how the energy reduction will be achieved in the existing building stock, including deep renovation and staged deep renovation targets, and energy efficiency measures to address social challenges in the existing housing sector
• 2,5% of the total floor area of the heated and/or cooled area of the buildings owned by public bodies to be annually subject to deep or staged deep renovation
• Use the Energy End Use Saving Scheme (1,5% yearly energy saving obligation for energy providers and energy retail companies) as a financing tool for deep renovation and staged deep renovation for buildings by encouraging the utility companies to achieve part of their obligations through energy efficiency measures in the building sector
• Have Member States create coherent and integrated financing strategies by aggregating multiple financing sources for implementing the energy efficiency measures, including building renovation

Romania Green Building Council has submitted a position paper that asks Romanian government representatives to support in the final negotiations, the ambitious measures  on building renovations proposed by the European Parliament. More details on the measures and how these apply to Romania can be found here.

Next steps for the EU level negotiations:

11th of April – start of the trialogue negotiations on the final text between the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission

8th of May – final vote on the text in ITRE Committee (tbd)

June 2012 – informal agreement on the final text in the Council

September 2012 – final vote in the European Parliament (tbd)