Brussels, 03/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 3 December, the European Commission adopted a proposal to amend Regulation 1080/2006 for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to facilitate investment eligibility in energy-efficiency and renewable energy measures in housing. The ERDF measure, however, will only be targeted at low-income households (member states will have to determine what constitutes low-income). This proposal was developed by the services of Danuta Hübner, the commissioner for regional policy. It forms part of a package of measures unveiled by the European Commission last week to relaunch the European economy, which is currently going through a turbulent period. In practice, this means the EU will be able to co-finance national, regional or local authority schemes to install double-glazing, wall insulation and solar panels in housing.
To date, through the cohesion policy, the 27 member states have planned to invest €4.8 billion on renewable energies and €4.2 billion on energy efficiency and energy management measures. The Commission explains that the proposal does not include any additional funding and expressed its hope that when selecting concrete projects, member states would choose them with low-income households in mind. (L.C./transl.rh)