Energy Efficiency Directive: Positive Effects on the Environment But Negative Impact on Czech Industry

Climate change is a topic that surrounds us on every day basis and EU policies are not exempt. On the contrary, there are many new European legislative proposals taking into account environmental aspects. Nevertheless in some cases, a strictly “green” focus can seriously jeopardize European economy.

It seems to be the case of the Energy Efficiency directive adopted by the European Parliament mid-September and to be formally approved by the Member States on Oct. 4th. “The European Parliament said its clear “yes“ to the proposal”, stressed Martin Stašek, spokesman of the European Commission Representation in the Czech Republic, when opening the debate that took place on September 13th in Prague. Pavel Jirásek of the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade warned that some articles of the directive had already been transposed into the Czech legislation but those remaining would be probably very difficult to implement, such as the mandatory annual renovation of 3% of total floor areas in public buildings and obligation for energy producers to save energy consumption of their end-users by 1.5% of annual total volume of sales. Josef Zbořil of Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic and Member of the European Economic and Social Committee pointed out that the directive would put additional financial burden on both businesses and individuals. He said: “The proposal lacked a real impact assessment on European economy”.

According to another expert from coal mining industries Vladimír Budínský, the room for increasing energy efficiency in the Czech Republic is already quite small compared to other European countries. Martin Sedlák, Executive Director of the Alliance for Energy Self-sufficiency thinks, contrary to abovementioned industry representatives, that the directive will bring mainly positive effects. “It will create new jobs and fundamentally reduce consumption of fossil fuels and therefore reduce Czech dependency on Russian imports. Energy efficiency directive is not a threat but an opportunity”, added Sedlák.