Portugal faces European court for defying buildings directive

The European Commission is taking Portugal to the European Court of Justice for failing to transpose the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive (EPBD). European member states had to transpose it into their national law by 9 July 2012. Despite receiving a formal notice last September and a reasoned opinion in January, Portugal did not comply. The Commission has now proposed that a daily fine of more than €25,000 be levied against Portugal until it has incorporated the new EU buildings law into its legislature.

The Commission has also requested that Belgium, Finland, France, Latvia, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland take action to ensure their full compliance with the directive. Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Spain have also been sent reasoned opinions this year.

This EPBD sets minimum energy performance requirements for all buildings, and enforces certification and inspection schemes. EU countries will have to review progress towards energy efficiency 2020 targets and consider binding measures if it is too slow by 2014. By 9 July 2015, they will have to raise the threshold for energy performance requirement on public buildings to 250m2. The Energy Efficiency Directive will be reviewed in 2016. All new public buildings will have to become near-zero CO₂ emitters by 1 January 2019 (by 2021, it requires all new buildings in the EU to be ‘nearly-zero energy’).