The news of the conclusion of the “trilogue”, the negotiation in the European Parliament on the directive on “green homes”, despite the fact that the meeting had been called “indefinitely” to finalize the text, has just arrived.
It was decided to postpone it to a subsequent meeting in December and – in any case – to eliminate the rules that imposed the obligation to carry out interventions on the properties. It seems to have prevailed on the most controversial part of the directive a more flexible approach, as supported by the EU Council, and new openings to Member States, which would have more margin for applying the directive in terms of methods and timing. From the current deadline for reducing energy consumption set for 2030 we would move to 2050.
The rules relating to green mortgages and the obligation to install solar panels on non-residential public buildings would remain to be defined, while the obligation to install charging stations in the car parks of existing residential buildings would be cancelled.
For Sandro Scoppapresident of Calabria Confbuilding And member of the national executive of the same Confederation: «Common sense has finally prevailed on the proposed European directive for the energy efficiency of buildings. However, this is a great victory for Confedilizia, which began raising the alarm two years ago, in Brussels and Rome, about the enormous dangers that the approval of the directive as set out would entail.
For the Calabria the result takes on even greater significance, since the risks that the directive would have produced have been averted. Causing, in particular, a drop in property prices for the worst energy classes; also causing negative effects on rents: landlords would have been forced to pass on the increased costs of bringing the buildings up to standard onto tenants. There would also have been an explosion in prices for renovation work, given that there was an obligation to do so quickly for most houses.
It is worth remembering that in Calabria, out of the total number (almost 790,000, of which 613,506 occupied as freehold and 90,724 rented) residential properties ascertained by Istat, approximately 10% are unused, while there is the presence, on the one hand, of buildings, especially in the more internal areas, of old construction and even, in large part, located in peculiar contexts from the point of view of the conformation of the territory; on the other, in areas of subsequent construction, of buildings that are often not yet completed or have not even been adapted to the new construction standards. There is also a very significant share of properties owned by condominiums: which makes the management of restrictive regulations such as those envisaged by the European directive much more complex”.