German Council presidency should straighten out its energy priorities and include building renovations

Today the German Government unveiled its EU Council Presidency priorities which lack a clear reference to the building renovation. As businesses and investors having energy efficiency and energy demand reduction at the heart of our activities, we believe that the German government lost a great opportunity to prioritise a sector which, more than any other, can deliver economic growth, local jobs creation and GHG emission reduction.

“We welcome the German government pledge to learn from the current crisis to be better prepared for the future and the focus on climate change and digitisation. At the same time, we strongly encourage the inclusion of the construction sector and in particular the renovation of the European building stock among the Council presidency priorities” – said Monica Frassoni, President of the European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE).

“For every million invested in the renovation of our homes we can create an average of 18 jobs. All the economic stimulus measures across the world address buildings. Finally the European Union is working on a flagship Renovation Wave initiative to trigger investments and accelerate the transformation of European society and economy towards climate neutrality. Therefore, it’s difficult to understand the decision to exclude buildings from the presidency’s priorities.”

“We have a lot of work to do to recover from the Covid-19 crisis and buildings must be at the centre of any rational energy, industrial and environmental strategy. With this in mind, we wish the German Government a successful presidency and look forward to constructive cooperation” – concluded Monica Frassoni.

 

Download the press release here (PDF)

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Open letter: Include energy renovation as priority of German Presidency

In view of the German presidency of the Council of the European Union, EU-ASE has supported an open letter to German Federal Ministers Altmaier, Seehofer, and Schulze urging them to include building renovation as a priority of the presidency programme.

The letter states:

The Renovate Europe Campaign (REC) is following with interest the development of the Programme for the upcoming German Council Presidency. The proposed priorities that we have heard of through public events and announcements, have raised concern among our 39 partner companies and associations. Among those partners we have 15 national partners, including, from Germany, DENEFF.

Our concern arises from the fact that there has been absolutely no mention of energy renovation of the building stock within the proposals we have heard about (including in the 18-month Programme of the Council1), a very surprising omission considering the recent webinar that was organised by the German Permanent Representation in Brussels on the topic of the Renovation Wave. On this point, we urge you to ensure that the German Council Presidency supports and promotes the forthcoming Renovation Wave Strategy currently being prepared for publication in September by the European Commission as a crucial pillar of the forthcoming European economic recovery.

Our objective is to ask that before the Presidency starts on the 1st July, energy renovation of our ageing and inefficient building stock is included as a priority in the Final Council Presidency Programme, which we understand is still in the final stages of development.

 

Read the full letter here

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