(Finance) – Green light from the Ecofin Councilin Luxembourg, at the new one EU directive on the energy performance of buildings, better known in Italy as directives “Green houses”, which requires Member States to guarantee the eventual transition to the higher energy efficiency class for all buildings currently in the lowest class of the national real estate stock.
The directive, already the subject of an agreement between the EU Council and the European Parliament and already recently approved by the European Parliament itself, received approval by a qualified majority of the member states with only two votes against, Italy and Hungary, while five other countries abstained, Poland, Sweden, Croatia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Italy voted against the EU directive on “green homes”, but with the vote in the Ecofin Council today “unfortunately the process has come to an end”and the directive will now have to be transposed by the Member States.
“Italy’s position is known. Beautiful directive, very beautifula, ambitious but who pays in the end?, said the Italian Minister of Economy and Finance, Giancarlo Giorgetti, speaking to journalists in Luxembourg at the end of the Ecofin meeting following the approval of the directive which will now be published in the Official Journal and will come into force 20 days later.
The 27 EU countries will then have two years to adapt, a period of time in which all the capitals, including Rome, will have to present a national restructuring plan to the EU, i.e. a roadmap to indicate the path they intend to follow to achieve their objectives.