What's Coming for Buildings in the EU?

The European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and its recast was the topic of a public lecture by Dr. Gergana Miladinova of the European Commission on "What's Coming for Buildings in the EU?" on June 18, 2009. The lecture was hosted by the Center for Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Policy.

Gergana Miladinova, a recent PhD graduate of CEU in environmental sciences and policy, has been working as a policy officer at the Directorate-General for Energy and Transport of the European Commission for the past two years. Her activities have been focusing on the coordination of the Commission’s activities related to EPBD and its recast, and she is currently a member of a task force on the EU’s new Energy Efficiency Action Plan.

The lecture provided an overview of EU policy action to achieve energy savings in buildings and focused in particular on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, which was introduced in 2003 and is currently undergoing a major revision process known as recast. Gergana Miladinova covered both the implementation of the original EPBD in EU member states and gave an outlook on what changes and improvements can be expected from the recast. She also commented on the European Parliament’s call for mandating new buildings to consume zero net energy from 2019 under the EPBD, a measure regarded by the European Commission as somewhat overambitious, though in principal leading into the right direction.

The talk was very well visited by professionals from the buildings and construction sectors, policy makers and members of the scientific community. A vivid discussion followed the lecture. The presentation of Gergana Miladinova is available for download below.