On the 3rd of December the European Commission adopted a proposal which will, for the first time, enable all Member States and regions in the European Union to invest in energy-efficiency and renewable energy measures in housing, with the support of European Cohesion Policy funding.
Current legislation on the EU Structural Funds gives new Member States only a limited right to use support from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for housing. It can only be used for common parts of a building (or the entire building in the case of social housing) in deprived urban areas. The new proposal would allow the whole EU-27 to benefit from ERDF support for energy efficiency and renewable energy investment in all types of buildings. However, interventions can target only low-income households (as defined by national rules).
In concrete terms, interventions could co-finance, for example, national, regional or local schemes for insulation of walls, roofing and windows (double-glazing), solar panels, and replacement of old boilers for more energy-efficient ones.
Measures to speed up energy investment in buildings will contribute to the following objectives:
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 Member States and the Parliament will have to adopt this Commission’s proposal, in accordance with the co-decision procedure. The measure is foreseen in the European Economic Recovery Plan.
Source: EC Press release (IP/08/1874)