(Finance) – The legislative process of the European directive on green homes. Tomorrow (Tuesday 12 March, ed.) it arrives in fact Plenary to Strasbourg the vote that will launch the controversial measure towards entry into force. After two years of negotiations and exactly one year after the first green light from the European Parliament, the Energy performance of buildings directive (EPBD) one last step will be missing once the obstacle of this vote has been overcome: the formal adoption by the Council, which represents the member countries.
It completely changes the direction of the most relevant passage of the directive, thearticle 9. If until a few weeks ago the hypothesis had been to indicate stringent requirements for individual buildings, leaving no room for member countries, this step has been revised, also thanks to the work of the measure’s rapporteur, the Irishman Ciaran Headphones (Greens), in the name of greater flexibility. Member countries have the task of defining plans for reducing their consumption heritage building residential. 2020 is considered the year zero and 2050 the year in which, upon completion of the process, we will need to have a zero-emission building stock. In between, the States will have to ensure a progressive improvement of the situation, reasoning however on average consumption and no longer on the efficiency class of individual buildings.
The goals intermediates reduction in consumption for the building stock of the Member States will be 16% in 2030 and 20-22% in 2035. Member countries will establish, with their plans, the ways to achieve these objectives. Above all, the directive places a constraint: the majority of renovations must concern the least performing 43% of the building stock. In this way, the objectives cannot be achieved only thanks to new properties.
The other major theme concerns the abandonment of fuels fossils, starting from methane gas boilers, in homes. The date by which to reach the complete announcement has been moved forward, to 2040; the previous deadline was 2035. Not only that. If he incentives tax for these appliances will be canceled starting from 2025, it has been explicitly established that it will be possible to give incentives to hybrid heating systems, such as those that combine boilers and heat pumps.
Once the directive has completed its journey adoption formal, including by the Council, will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union. It will come into force after twenty days. At that point, member countries will have two years to transpose and comply with the new rules. The Commission will then review the directive by 2028 at the latest.
(Photo: © European Union 2019 – Source: EP)