Brussels . . . Briefly . . .

Following the vote by the European Parliament on February 28^th, it is now the turn of the European Council under the Presidency of Denmark to get a common position in order to start the trialogues. For information on the co-decision process, go to the Reference Material page. All indications show that the negotiations will start by the end of the month. Energy suppliers should be allowed to pay money into national energy efficiency funds instead of meeting a 1.5% annual energy savings obligation, the Danish presidency suggests. The Presidency wants member states to review the energy efficiency of their entire national building stock by December 2014 and set targets for 2050. It is also continuing to call for more flexibility on how the target for energy suppliers and a renovation goal for public buildings are met. It also suggests that the commission should propose new “measures,” rather than binding goals, if the EU looks as if it will miss its 2020 energy efficiency target. The Danish Presidency is pushing for a final decision by June.

Under the 2006 End-use Efficiency and Energy Services Directive, member states are to have submitted their second National Energy Efficiency Action Plans by June 2011. By recent count, all are in except Romania. And of those in, all are available in English except the Polish Action Plan. These are available at the DG Energy website.

Under the recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the Commission was to publish cost optimality calculation methodology by the end of June 2011. It is not out yet. Supposedly, Council has come to an agreement and it is still to be approved by Parliament and hopefully will be available in the not too distant future. The Directive states that the first report on cost optimality concerning all input data and assumptions used for those calculations and the results of those calculations shall be submitted by 30 June 2012. So, it seems safe to assume there will be even more slippage. Stay tuned.