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Green Homes Directive: the yes of the EU Parliament, the no of the center-right and the unknown ad hoc funds

6 months ago babelfish

Green Homes Directive: the yes of the EU Parliament, the no of the center-right and the unknown ad hoc funds

Facts, numbers, insights and comments on the European Parliament's approval (with controversy) of the green homes directive

The directive on green homes takes a further step forward, the law that aims to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and make the building sector climate neutral by 2050. The law was definitively approved by the European Parliament with 370 votes to in favour, 199 against and 46 abstentions. To become law, the text requires the green light from the Council, and therefore from the member states, which could arrive during the next Ecofin meeting on 12 April.

22% CUT IN BUILDING SECTOR EMISSIONS BY 2035

The green homes directive aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption in the building sector. An objective that requires a fairly tight process: by 2030 emissions will have to fall by at least 16% compared to 2020 , and by 2035 by 20-22%. New private buildings, however, will have to be zero-emission from 2030 and public ones from 2028. Furthermore, the renovation measures adopted from 2020 will be counted towards the objective and states will be able to choose to apply exemptions for historic buildings, for agricultural buildings, for military purposes and for those used only temporarily. The text approved by the European Parliament is the result of a long negotiation and a compromise which, compared to the first proposal, allows states to enjoy a certain flexibility while respecting the specificities of the real estate stock of each country. In fact, the Member States will communicate to the Commission how they plan to achieve the objectives of the directive.

GREEN HOUSES DIRECTIVE: AD HOC FUNDS MISSING

One aspect that has attracted the attention of commentators concerns the lack of funds dedicated to the green revolution of buildings. The EPBD directive, in fact, does not provide for ad hoc funds. “A very significant weakness, since the European Commission estimates that the redevelopment of the real estate stock (both residential and non-residential) will require something like 152 billion in extra investments every year, more than what is already invested today – writes Il Sole 24 hours -. Member countries will be responsible for the resources, support measures and other tools necessary to support the renewal plans. In fact, it is above all their obligations that the EPBD talks about: they will have to make use of existing national and European funds, starting from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the Social Climate Fund, and the Cohesion Funds. All these financing lines must be distributed constantly, so as to reach the goal of zero emissions by 2050. There must be no peaks in investments, as was the super bonus in Italy.”

CIARAN CUFFE'S ENCOURAGEMENT TO OUR COUNTRY

The age of our country's real estate has raised many doubts about the difficulty in applying the legislation. Encouragement comes to our country precisely from Ciaran Cuffe, Irish MEP from the Green group, rapporteur of the law. “The EPBD directive will be a boost for Italy because it will attract investments, not only in the short term but for an entire generation – said the MEP -. In Italy you have had very significant incentives for renovations, but concentrated over a short period of time."

THE VOTE OF ITALIAN PARTIES: THE GOVERNMENT MAJORITY VOTES "NO"

The vote of the Italian representatives in the European Parliament was divided. People, liberals, socialists, greens and the left voted in favour, as did some of the former M5S who were not members of any group. Against, however, the majority parties FdI, Lega and Forza Italia with the sole exceptions of Alessandra Mussolini (who made it known that she had made a mistake) and Herbert Dorfmann of the SVP. More than half of the EPP parliamentarians voted in favor of the legislation, following the indications received from the Industry Committee of the European Parliament. The same goes for Renew, which was divided in the Chamber, with a minority sided against the text.

For Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini, this is "yet another European madness". Isabella Tovaglieri (Lega), who voted against the directive, underlined how serious the absence of dedicated funds is. “It is a decisive point of the directive – said the League parliamentarian -, because either Europe puts in the money or, if the money must be invested by individual states, they will establish the methods of implementing the directive”. Patrizia Toia (Pd), vice-president of the Parliament's Industry commission, also agrees with her colleague, but instead voted in favour. “Given that the resources already exist among European funds, we would have liked a budget item dedicated to this issue, but it was not possible to establish it – said the PD parliamentarian -. However, there is a commitment to address the issue on the part of the European Commission as early as 2025".

CONFEDILIZIA'S POSITION: "A TEXT WITH DIFFICULTLY ACHIEVABLE OBJECTIVES"

Confconstruction, the Italian building property confederation, has expressed a particularly critical position towards the directive. “Confconstruction – we read on the Twitter account of the President of Confedilizia Giorgio Spaziani Testa – fought – successfully, in the end – to eliminate the most dangerous parts for the real estate savings of Italians. It remains a text with very difficult to achieve objectives, which the new European legislature would do well to rethink". The text, as mentioned, was approved in the form of a directive, which means that the EU limited itself to setting the objectives to be achieved, but how the ball passes to the individual member states. “After that, the Governments will have a fundamental role, called upon to implement the directive in the various countries – writes Giorgio Spaziani Testa -. And the Italian one will have to deal with a reality that is very different from that of most EU countries."

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/direttiva-case-green-il-si-del-parlamento-ue-il-no-del-centrodestra-e-lincognita-fondi-ad-hoc/ on Wed, 13 Mar 2024 13:51:57 +0000.