Brussels, 18/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - Ahead of the review of the directive 2002/91/EC on the energy efficiency of buildings, the European parliament energy committee, chaired by Angelika Niebler (EPP-ED, Germany) debated measures to encourage improving the energy performance of buildings, at a public hearing on 16 February. After noting that the buildings represent 40% of all the energy consumed in Europe, Silvia-Adriana Ticau (PES, Romania), rapporteur on the proposed recast of directive 2002/91/EC, underlined the need for the EU to reduce the energy consumption of its buildings by at least 20% by 2020, arguing that, after that date, member states should only issue building permits for buildings using low or no carbon energy sources and technologies. To make buildings more energy efficient, Ticau called for tax breaks, by setting up a European energy efficiency and renewable energy fund and by increasing regional development funding available for such projects from 3% to 15%. Her proposals were supported by Den Dover (EPP-ED, UK). Claude Turmes (Greens/EFA, Luxembourg) called on his colleagues to back his idea of a strategy for buildings BUILDING 21, similar to the one put in place for the car industry CARS 21. Turmes also supported the idea of a special €30 billion fund for renovating buildings to be set up by the end of the year. Alejo Vidal-Quadras (EPP-ED, Spain) said he was concerned by the Commission's proposal to remove by 2014 all incentives to build or renovate buildings that did not meet minimum energy efficiency conditions. He also spoke of the legal difficulty of including criteria for funds in a directive on energy performance requirements for buildings. Adam Gierek (PES, Poland) highlighted the huge potential for heat insulation and modernisation of buildings in his country where 40% of buildings are prefabricated and consume almost 400 kilowatts per square metre and waste a great deal of heat. German academic Wolfgang Feist of the Darmstadt Passivhaus Institut said that it was technically possible nowadays to construct buildings that consume only 10% of the heat used in existing buildings. Fiona Hall (ALDE, UK) called for a European energy efficiency certificate for buildings. Joanne Arbon of ATA Technology, a consultancy specialising in alternative energies and energy efficiency, stressed the importance of fully implementing directive 2002/91/EC. Hitherto, she pointed out, only 17 member states fully apply it, seven others are almost in full compliance with its requirements, while Cyprus, Greece and Hungary are still struggling to implement most or even all of it. Following an energy committee vote on 9 March, the Ticau report will be put to the plenary session on 21-24 April. (E.H./transl.rt)