The Czech EU Presidency and the European Commission presented a progress report on energy-saving legislation on buildings, tyres and energy labelling, which are to contribute to the EU's target of using 20% less energy by 2020.
According to a progress report from the Czech Presidency, many member states are concerned that the directive on the energy performance of buildings could come with too high an administrative burden.
Although generally supportive of the legislation, they think the European Parliament's first-reading position that all new buildings should produce on-site at least as much renewable energy as they consume by 2019 is "overly ambitious and unrealistic" (EurActiv 24/04/09).
On energy labels for consumer goods, member states seem to be divided between the Commission's proposals to change the current A-G classification by adding categories to the highest 'A' class, and the Parliament's first-reading position of retaining the closed scheme and upgrading classification thresholds instead (EurActiv 06/05/09).
After the Parliament's rejection of the new label format for televisions (EurActiv 07/05/09), the legislation on labelling is at an impasse, which the Commission is trying to unblock by conducting a consumer survey.
The directive on tyre labelling, on the other hand, has proven less controversial, although some member states wanted to add provisions for a tyre type used in Nordic winter conditions. The Commission will now propose an amended version in the form of a directive to speed up implementation.
The incoming Swedish EU Presidency has announced that it will make energy efficiency one of its priorities for the next six months.
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