Berlin considers withdrawing support for EU buildings directive

by Nikolaus J. Kurmayer

Government infighting in Berlin could see Germany abandon a mandatory renovation principle in the EU’s buildings directive ahead of final negotiations in Brussels.

As part of its Green Deal, the European Commission is pushing to double the renovation rate of EU buildings, which currently stands at just 1% annually.

To do this, Brussels tabled a revision of the EU’s energy performance of buildings directive (EPBD) and introduced minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) to make renovations for the 15% worst-performing buildings mandatory across the 27-country bloc.

However, it is not looking good for the proposal, which faces resistance from all sides.

Appetite for mandatory energy performance standards has been limited among EU governments, with a 15-country coalition led by Rome and Warsaw looking to defeat it. In the opposite camp, a 6-country group led by France and Germany is pushing to uphold the bloc’s ambition.

The European Parliament, for its part, has supported ambitious mandatory renovation standards and adopted a position considered very ambitious. The Parliament and EU countries must approve a standard text before it can become law.

But the German government is now ready to withdraw its support for ambitious energy performance standards and opt for a more flexible approach instead, sources in Berlin told EURACTIV.

Last week, the three-party coalition in Berlin agreed to go ahead with a controversial proposal to ban new fossil boilers as of 2024, despite opposition from the liberal FDP.

According to sources in Berlin, the FDP’s support for the fossil boiler ban came in exchange for abandoning the minimum energy performance standards in the EPBD.

“The goal of the federal government in the upcoming trialogue negotiations is to have regulations that are close to life and do not overburden anyone,” a government spokesperson told EURACTIV, without mentioning MEPS.

The spokesperson added that the government is “still in talks” on the EU buildings directive, citing the need to ensure that buildings become climate neutral by 2050.

However, support from the leading party in the German coalition, the SPD, may be waning. Observers say German Chancellor Olaf Scholz no longer supports mandatory EU renovation goals because of fears they would add extra financial burden on German citizens who have already been struck by a succession of crises in recent years.

Construction Minister Klara Geywitz, a close ally of Scholz in the SPD party, is wary of mandatory renovation, too. “I do not think that it is compatible with the German constitution to make renovation compulsory by law,” she said in March.

Daniel Fost, a member of the German Bundestag in charge of the FDP’s buildings policy, says “that forced renovation of buildings is the wrong way to go.”

The Greens’ chief, Ricarda Lang, told EURACTIV that Berlin would not abandon its fight for ambitious building standards. However, she did caution that social implications must be carefully considered.

Room for compromise?

With the Greens in Berlin seemingly outnumbered, the beleaguered party may be forced to cede ground.

Instead of the single-building approach proposed by the European Commission and supported by Parliament, or the building stock average approach favoured by EU countries, a neighbourhood-based approach to mandatory renovation may be adopted as a compromise, sources say.

Sweden, which holds the EU’s rotating Council presidency, has shown little appetite to begin three-way negotiations to conclude the buildings directive and their successor, Spain, is also showing little motivation. As a result, the law’s adoption may take some time yet.

*first published in: Euractiv.com