DECISION OF THE EEA JOINT COMMITTEE No 135/2022

of 29 April 2022

amending Annex IV (Energy) to the EEA Agreement [2022/1579]

THE EEA JOINT COMMITTEE,

Having regard to the Agreement on the European Economic Area (‘the EEA Agreement’), and in particular Article 98 thereof,

Whereas:

Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 2010 on the energy performance of buildings (1) (‘the EPBD’) is to be incorporated into the EEA Agreement.

Due to the specificities of Iceland’s relatively recent and uniform building stock, a temporary and conditional exemption from applying Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings is agreed. That exemption should apply to Directive 2010/31/EU as in force before the amendment by Directive (EU) 2018/844 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018. The exemption should be strictly limited in time and should apply only until an agreement is reached concerning the incorporation of Directive 2010/31/EU as amended by Directive (EU) 2018/844 into the EEA Agreement.

In line with the very small size of the building stock in Liechtenstein and its climatic and building typology, Liechtenstein is exempted from the obligation under Article 5 of the EPBD to carry out its own calculations for the establishment of cost-optimal levels of minimum energy performance requirements for buildings.

Pursuant to the conditions of adaptation (c), Norway and Liechtenstein may stipulate regulations on minimum energy performance requirements using a different system boundary than primary energy use which is the one required under the EPBD, provided that the conditions stipulated in adaptation (c) are met.

Adaptation (d) ensures that the user-operated energy performance certification system in Norway produces equivalent results to certificates issued by independent experts as required by Article 17 of the EPBD.

Annex IV to the EEA Agreement should therefore be amended accordingly,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

The text of point 17 (Directive 2002/91/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council) of Annex IV of the EEA Agreement is replaced by the following:

‘32010 L 0031: Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 2010 on the energy performance of buildings (OJ L 153, 18.6.2010, p. 13).

The provisions of the Directive shall, for the purposes of this Agreement, be read with the following adaptations:

(a) The Directive shall not apply to Iceland.

(b) The following shall be added to Article 5(2): “For the purpose of establishing the cost-optimal levels of minimum energy performance requirements, Liechtenstein may use the calculations of another Contracting Party having comparative parameters.”.

(c) For the purpose of Article 9(3)(a) and Annex I of the EPBD, Liechtenstein and Norway may base their requirements for energy use on net energy, provided that the following conditions and safeguards are fulfilled: (i) The minimum energy performance requirements are set in line with the requirements of Article 5 of the EPBD, following the basic principles of the methodology framework, which has been established for the calculation of cost-optimal levels of minimum energy performance requirements (2). (ii) A numeric indicator of primary energy use corresponding to the energy performance requirements set in the building code is published. (iii) The Commission reserves the right to revisit this specific adaptation in the context of the future negotiations on the EPBD as amended by Directive (EU) 2018/844.