Legal briefing: The possible integration of financial and fiscal provisions in the Directive 2002/91/EC on the Energy Performance of Buildings

The purpose of this briefing is to advise on issues related to fiscal and financial measures proposed by the European Parliament to be included into the recast of the Directive 2002/91/EC on the Energy Performance of Buildings (the EPBD). The briefing explains that the European Parliament’s proposal to include into the EPBP the fiscal and financial provisions is acceptable and correct from the legal point of view (in particular, concerning the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, the principle of the Community implied competences, the legal basis, EU voting rules). The main difficulty in relation to such provisions is that they touch very sensitive issue of areas considered traditionally to be the national competence. Attempts to enter into this area often raise arguments of state sovereignty. Therefore, it can be expected that the proposal raises political concerns and opposition from the Member States.