*** modified on Wednesday 1 February at 10:30 am ***
The EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and The Left political groups in the European Parliament reached a compromise covering the entire text of the revision of the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) in the evening of Monday 30 January.
According to an almost finalised version of the compromise agreement obtained by EUROPE, these groups agreed to strengthen the ambition of the revision proposal presented by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12854/13) on several points, including the article on Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS).
Member States would be required to ensure that public and private non-residential buildings achieve at least energy performance class E by 2027 and D by 2030, compared to F and E in the Commission’s text and C and D in the original proposal by the Parliament’s rapporteur Ciarán Cuffe (Greens/EFA, Irish) (see EUROPE 12971/3). Residential buildings should at least meet the requirements of class E by 2030 and D by 2033.
However, Member States could exempt state-owned social housing from this obligation, where such renovations would not be cost-neutral or would lead to rent increases greater than the savings on energy bills.
In the case of residential buildings, they would also have the possibility to ask the Commission to adapt the MEPS for specific parts or sub-segments of its building stock, “for reasons of economic and technical feasibility and the availability of skilled workforce”.
However, these exceptions could not be applied to more than 22% of all residential buildings and would cease to exist after 1 January 2037.
New buildings
Under the draft compromise, Member States would also have to ensure that new buildings are zero-emission buildings from 2026 for public buildings and from 2028 for all others (compared to 2027 and 2030 in the Commission’s proposal).
The draft compromise also foresees a ban on the use of fossil fuel heating systems in new buildings and buildings undergoing major renovation, deep renovation, or renovation of the heating system from the deadline for transposing the new rules into Member States’ national law. As regards all remaining buildings, EU countries should phase out these heating systems by 2035. However, this deadline could be extended to 2040 if the Member State demonstrates to the Commission that it is not feasible by 2035.
The provision goes on to state that hybrid heating systems, boilers certified as being able to run on renewable fuels and other technical building systems not using fossil fuels exclusively and meeting certain requirements “shall not be considered as fossil heating systems”.
Stimulating the deployment of solar energy installations
The draft compromise also introduces obligations for Member States to deploy solar energy installations, “if technically suitable and economically and functionally feasible”.
The latter should ensure that such installations are fitted in all new public and non-residential buildings from the time of transposition of the new rules. Solar energy installations should also be placed on all existing public and non-residential buildings by 31 December 2026, on all new residential buildings and car parks by 31 December 2028 and on all buildings undergoing major renovation by 31 December 2032.
A roadmap against energy poverty
Each Member State would be obliged to establish a national plan for the renovation of buildings including a roadmap with national targets for the reduction of energy poverty and an overview of implemented and planned policies and financing measures to support the elimination of energy poverty.
The plan should also include a further roadmap setting indicative national targets for achieving a thorough renovation of at least 35 million building units by 2030 with the aim of achieving an annual energy renovation rate of 3% or more by 2050.
The draft compromise will be put to a vote in the Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) on 9 February with a view to adoption in the Parliament’s plenary session in March.
For its part, the Council of the EU adopted its position on this issue on 25 October (see EUROPE 13050/3, 13052/16). (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)