Debate: Implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive
Date: MONDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2021
Speaker: Stella Kyriakides
Language: EN

The European Parliament and the Commission have worked hand in hand towards the common goal of decarbonising the building sector. This includes ensuring the proper implementation of the EPBD and analysing the elements that can be improved in the context of the legislative review to be launched on 14 December.  Buildings are responsible for greenhouse gas emissions before, during and after their operational lifetime. The 2050 vision for a decarbonised building stock goes beyond the current focus on operational greenhouse gas emissions. The whole lifecycle emission of buildings should therefore progressively be taken into account, starting with new buildings.  While the focus of the proposal is the reduction of operational greenhouse gas emissions, the first steps are taken to address carbon emissions over the whole lifecycle of a building.  The recommendation of Parliament’s own-initiative report expressed to a large extent the view of the European Commission on the achievements and challenges in making sure that energy and efficiency renovations of buildings contribute to our updated climate targets. The Commission will present its analysis of the Member States’ 2020 long-term renovation strategies in its staff working document accompanying the 14 December package. At this point, I can say that we have detected the positive developments since the previous edition of the strategies in 2017.  As regards the completeness aspect, and from a formal point of view, the strategies have in general respected the requirements of the directive, providing information in the different categories requested by Article 21 of the EPBD. On content, the submitted strategy showed broad engagement to provide easier access to financing, technical support, promotion of advisory tools such as one-stop shops, tackling energy poverty and better information, among other best practices. On the ambition level, the situation varies. Some Member States have high targets, while others need to intensify their efforts and invest more. The Commission also shares Parliament’s view on the need to help Member States improve their strategies further. The Commission also finds that a better comparability of data among different strategies is needed, in particular by harmonising the template for strategies development.  The analysis of the EPBD review provided by the European Parliament contributed to the development of the proposal for the review of the EPBD that the Commission will adopt on 14 December. This proposal is essential for delivering on a major component of the Fit for 55 package and will contain a number of key measures in line with the European Parliament recommendations. We will propose revised measures on the long-term renovation strategies, which build on the existing and well-established framework. We aim to improve towards more transparency, better implementation and monitoring procedures, with new elements that reflect a broader view of issues and higher ambition towards decarbonisation.  This new framework will require Member States to develop and submit a stronger plan with clear and specific chapters, including data more comparable and easy to aggregate at the EU level. On the issue of electromobility specifically addressed by the European Parliament, the review of the EPBD is also envisaging a number of key provisions. To name a few, the proposal will strengthen the existing provisions on parking spaces in new and renovated buildings for the recharging of electric vehicles, in line with increased climate ambition, by lowering the threshold for the number of parking places. The proposal will introduce a right to plug specifically addressing barriers to recharging in multi-family buildings. We will propose to strengthen the requirements for the roll-out of recharging points in existing large non-residential buildings, since recharging at the workplace is an important complement to recharging at home.  With smart charging, the car can be charged when energy prices are low or when renewable energy is abundant, and it will also be possible to feed electricity back to the grid and use the car battery as a storage facility, vehicle to grid. Smart charging facilities, the integration of renewable energy such as wind and solar to the grid, and help decarbonise the energy system.  The proposal will support other forms of sustainable mobility, in particular e-bikes and bikes which require safe parking in residential and non-residential buildings. This is why the proposal will also be addressing recharging points to support smart charging, which is also in line with the Renewable Energy Directive and Alternative Fuels Infrastructure proposals. The EPBD proposal is therefore in line with the European Parliament’s report to a very large extent, and this complementing the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation proposal which covers publicly available recharging points.  In concluding, the Commission would like to thank the European Parliament and the rapporteur for this excellent and very timely own-initiative report. On the issue of the long-term innovation strategies of e-mobility and other aspects contained in Parliament’s comprehensive report, the Commission will make full use of the European Parliament recommendations.  The Commission will work very closely with the European Parliament during the forthcoming negotiations to ensure consistency across all building-related provisions in the Green Deal initiatives. It requires a coherent and robust framework for buildings to meet the EU’s 2030 and 2050 targets, and I of course count on your continued support to achieve it.