ENERGY EFFICIENCY DIRECTIVE AND CULTURAL HERITAGE

feb 15

Prior to the vote of the European Parliament ITRE Committee (Industry, Research and Energy) on the Report on the proposed Energy Efficiency Directive fixed on 28 February, Mrs Cristina Gutierrez-Cortines, Spanish MEP, member of the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, organised on 11 January, in the European Parliament, the first seminar on European Policy and Cultural Heritage Conservation on the theme of Architectural Heritage and Energy Efficiency.

Many contributors took part in the discussion, including representatives of the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation and DG Energy, experts from various European countries and Sneska Quaedvlieg-Mihailovic, Europa Nostra Secretary General.

The Energy Efficiency Directive, proposed last June by the European Commission, aims at establishing a framework for promoting energy efficiency to ensure that the Union meets its target of 20% primary energy savings by 2020. The proposal includes an obligation for Member States to lay down national energy efficiency targets for 2020 and a set of measures for end-users on the one hand and the energy supply sector on the other.

Europa Nostra supports the rationale and the main objectives of the proposed Energy Efficiency Directive but stresses the need to strike the right balance between two equally important objectives: energy saving and combating climate change on one side and on the other side, ensuring the safeguard of Europe’s cultural heritage (a policy objective and a public value which are recognised not only by national heritage protection legislations but also by the Lisbon Treaty, article 3.3).

Europa Nostra therefore expressed its support to the following amendments proposed by MEPs Cristina Gutierrez-Cortines (EPP), Patrizia Toia (S&D) and Pilar del Castillo Vera (EPP) concerning the application of this Directive to cultural and architectural heritage which seek to recognize the special needs and special characteristics of historic buildings and ensembles within the scope of the proposed Energy Efficiency Directive and the related draft Report by EP’s ITRE Committee:

- amendment 329: 2.a. Buildings of special architectural, historical or cultural merit may be exempted from the minimum requirements set by the Directive, due to its particular technical and aesthetic characteristics. Therefore Member States should establish a specific system, in consultation with representatives experts of cultural heritage in each country, when a specific building of such a nature would require this exemption.

- amendment 330: 2.a. Buildings of special architectural or historical merit shall be exempted from the minimum requirements sent by this Directive.

- amendment 537: 1.b. The following buildings and monuments shall not be included in the calculation of the 3% renovation rate defined in Article 4 (1) of this directive:

a) Listed historic buildings and monuments

b) Buildings that public authorities buy with a view to demolition

- amendment 1024: 3.a. The Commission and the Member States shall seek to establish research schemes to come up with technology for use in historic and cultural buildings, covering all aspects connected with the use of renewable energy, the installation of smart meters and other energy saving or generation technologies that would need to be installed in such buildings. The Commission and the Member States shall also undertake to disseminate the findings of research that has already been carried out.

Photo: © European Union 2011 PE-EP/Pietro Naj-Oleari CC BY-NC-ND