28 juni: Energieprestaties van gebouwen: Commissie dringt aan op implementatie

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28 juni: Energieprestaties van gebouwen: Commissie dringt aan op implementatie

IP/06/863

Brussels, 28 June 2006

Energy Performance of Buildings: Commission sends reasoned opinions to Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Malta and Sweden

The Commission sent today reasoned opinion (the second step of an infringement procedure) to Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Malta and Sweden for failure to notify national implementing measures requested in 2002 Energy Performance of Buildings directive [1] . The Directive aims at reducing energy consumption in buildings by obliging the Member States to lay down minimum energy performance standards and apply those for new buildings and for bigger existing buildings.

The energy performance will then have to be reflected on an energy certificate, which is basically a label for a building, in some ways similar to the label on household appliances. However, the certificate for a building is more elaborate, and will be accompanied by solid advice on how to improve the energy performance of an existing building and what the investment costs and the pay back time on the investment is likely to be. In addition, Member States need to ensure that heating and air conditioning installations are regularly inspected to enable performance improvement.

In these cases, Commission action was prompted by the insufficient information provided by these Member States as a reaction to the first letters for failure to notify implementing measures, which the Commission sent in February of this year. In the case of Hungary no reply was received. The Commission is still examining the information received from 14 Member States which received a similar letter in February.

The cases for failure to implement the Directive against Lithuania and Portugal have been closed, as these countries have notified complete implementation.

Member States should have implemented the energy performance of buildings directive by 4 January of this year.

[1] Richtlijn 2002/91/EG van het Europees Parlement en de Raad van 16 december 2002 betreffende de energieprestaties van gebouwen [Publicatieblad L 001 van 4.1.2003].