Energy end-use efficiency and energy services
The committee adopted the report by Mechtild ROTHE (PES, DE) amending the Council's common position under the 2nd reading of the codecision procedure. It reinstated, sometimes in modified form, a number of amendments adopted by Parliament at 1st reading and also tabled new amendments:
- as regards the indicative targets for national energy savings through energy services and energy efficiency measures, MEPs wanted Member States to save 11.5% after nine years (following the directive's entry into force), whereas the Council had proposed an overall target of 6% to be reached after six years;
- particular emphasis should be placed on reporting and monitoring, to encourage the Member States to undertake long-term comprehensive plans for energy efficiency and energy savings. As a compromise between the Council's common position and Parliament's 1st reading proposals, MEPs called for Member States to submit Energy Efficiency Action Plans (as proposed in the Green Paper on energy efficiency) which would serve not only as reports but also as guidelines;
- within the EEAPs, Member States should establish three consecutive 3-yearintermediate targets, which will be audited and assessed by the Commission. The first of these targets should be at least 3%;
- should the reporting show that the measures implemented by Member States are not leading to the increases in energy efficiency laid down, the Commission should be able to require the Member State to implement additional measures to reach the targets, which shall cease to be indicative;
- Member States should work towards common EU-wide benchmarks and indicators for the energy conversion markets and sub-markets. These would be integrated into the EEAPs;
- whereas the Council had deleted any reference to targets for the public sector, the committee called for Member States to ensure that higher indicative energy savingstargets are set for the public sector, as appropriate for its exemplary role. The committee also called once again for the public sector to include energy efficiency as an assessment criterion in competitive tendering for public contracts;
- as a compromise between Council and Parliament on the question of laying down a definition for the public sector (the Council was opposed to this), the committee proposed that Member States should "define the public sector covered by the target in the context of this Directive";
- MEPs reiterated Parliament's 1st reading position requiring Member States to provide "all relevant customer information on energy end-use efficiency and energy savings". They also wanted customers to receive bills on the basis of their actual consumption in more cases than provided for by Council;
- the committee reinstated the clause previously introduced by Parliament requiring the Commission to assess to what extent "energy efficiency is and may further be achieved through conversion of energy and installations, such as shifting from individual boilers to district heating or from a fossil energy source to a renewable energy";
- by way of a compromise between Council and Parliament
with regard to the evaluation of measures, MEPs proposed a combination of bottom-up and top-down calculation methods, with
a predetermined, gradual increase in the bottom-up element (30-40% for the
period up to the third year and at least 40-60% up to the sixth year). This
standardised calculation model should become uniform throughout
- the directive should be implemented by Member States one year after its entry in force (as opposed to two years in the common position);
- lastly, the committee reinstated a series of 1st reading amendments to Annex III concerning eligible energy improvement measures.