The European Commission is referring Greece to the EU Court of Justice for failing to transpose the Energy Efficiency Directive. Under this directive EU Member States must meet certain energy savings targets from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2020. They must do this by using energy efficiency obligations schemes or other targeted policy measures to drive energy efficiency improvements in households, buildings, industry and transport. Under the Energy Efficiency Obligations Schemes, companies have to take measures to ensure energy savings at final customer level, for example by giving advice on installing better insulation or offering grants for replacing old energy-wasting windows. Member States were required to transpose the obligations of the Directive by 5 June 2014...
Other requirements under the Directive include:
- energy audits for big companies every four years,
- increased rights for consumers regarding metering and billing of their energy consumption,
- renovation of at least 3% of central government buildings every year
- and energy efficient public purchasing.
In February 2015, the Commission sent a reasoned opinion to Greece requesting the country to notify the Commission of all transposition measures for the Energy Efficiency Directive. To date, no legislation transposing the Directive into national law has been adopted and/or notified to the Commission.
- energy audits for big companies every four years,
- increased rights for consumers regarding metering and billing of their energy consumption,
- renovation of at least 3% of central government buildings every year
- and energy efficient public purchasing.
In February 2015, the Commission sent a reasoned opinion to Greece requesting the country to notify the Commission of all transposition measures for the Energy Efficiency Directive. To date, no legislation transposing the Directive into national law has been adopted and/or notified to the Commission.
Referring Greece to the Court, the Commission proposes a daily penalty of €29 145,60. The level of this penalty takes into account the duration and the seriousness of the infringement. In case the transposition remains incomplete and the Court confirms the Commission's view, the daily penalty would have to be paid from the date of the judgment or a later date set by the Court until the transposition is complete. The final amount of the daily penalty will be decided by the Court, but cannot exceed the Commission's proposalIn addition, the European Commission has requested Germany to ensure the full transposition of the Energy Efficiency Directive. Germany has now two months to comply with this obligation, following that the Commission may decide to refer it to the EU Court of Justice and ask for financial penalties.
Progress on transposing the Energy Efficiency Directive is currently being examined in all Member States. Overall, 27 Member States (all except Malta) have received a letter of formal notice for failing to fully transpose the Directive by the June 2014 deadline. So far, the Commission issued eight reasoned opinions to Member States where full transposition was still not achieved (Austria, Portugal, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ireland, Romania, Latvia and today, Germany) and has referred two Member States to Court (Hungary in March 2015 and, today, Greece). The Commission continues to monitor the progress in transposition and will address any shortcomings in future infringement cycles.
