Recommendations & priorities on further proceedings on the Proposal for an Energy Efficiency Directive

In view of the European institutions’ further proceedings on the Commission proposal for an Energy Efficiency Directive, Orgalime submits its priorities and recommendations on the way forward for which we request your support.

Orgalime welcomes the willingness of European regulators to reach a first reading agreement on the draft Energy Efficiency Directive. However, concluding discussions should not be at the expense of the overall ambition of the Directive. While we acknowledge that the Council’s work has progressed under the Danish presidency, we are seriously concerned about the level of ambition that it is, in our view, still too low as regards many provisions of the Directive. If final agreement between regulators is reached on a text which is largely devoid of substantive measures, the EU would once again be missing the opportunity to act as a catalyst to strengthen the market for energy efficient products and services. We therefore invite the European institutions to take the necessary time to arrive at quality legislation, which is coherent, enforceable and workable in practice, but also at ambitious legislation pursuing the 2020 energy efficiency objective and looking beyond.

We consider the draft Directive as an opportunity to provide an urgently needed common and holistic answer to the energy, climate change and resource efficiency challenges ahead by harmonising to the maximum extent possible current practices and efforts of the different Member States. A robust European framework will not only provide a clear political signal for sustainable, growth enhancing energy efficiency investments and thereby be a motor for generating growth in Europe. It will also help to secure free movement, reducing Europe’s energy bill that today is strongly dominated by energy imports, and it can contribute to help to change consumer behaviour to reduce their individual energy consumption and related costs.

Orgalime industries are fully committed to continuously improving the energy use in their own processes, to placing on the market ever more energy efficient products and technologies for the consumer to enjoy and to play its role in facilitating better informed consumer choices.

While much has already been done by the European engineering industries, there is still a potential for increasing energy efficiency through better take up of cost effective technologies. We also believe that the most economic and simplest way to reach the 2020 objectives is to focus on the inefficient use of energy across market segments, such as the buildings and energy sectors.