Brussels, 10/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission sent a reasoned opinion to Portugal on Thursday 10 December requesting that it correctly transpose all the requirements of Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings into national law.
Under this directive, member states must establish and apply minimum energy performance requirements for new and existing buildings, ensure the certification of buildings' energy performance, and require the regular inspection of heating and air conditioning systems. In addition, it requires member states to ensure that all new buildings are “nearly-zero energy” from 2021 onwards (2019 for public buildings).
A detailed examination of Portuguese national legislation transposing the directive revealed that, firstly, some of its requirements did not apply in the Azores region. Secondly, the national legislation itself contained exemptions from the energy performance requirements, for which there is no provision in the directive. Thirdly, Portugal has decided to adopt alternative measures to regular inspection of heating and air conditioning systems, but has not provided the necessary evidence that the same amount of energy savings can be achieved with the alternative measures, as required by the directive.
Portugal now has two months to notify the European Commission of measures taken to remedy this situation, failing which it may be referred to the Court of Justice of the EU. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)