Maria Spyraki (PPE). – Madam President, Commissioner Simson, dear colleagues, we are here today to make another step towards a more sustainable and energy efficient way for living. What we aim to do today is to provide to citizens in the Member States a complete toolbox to achieve a zero emission and fully decarbonised building stock by 2050.
How this is going to be a realistic framework? First, by the facilitation of more targeted financing of investments in the building sector and second, by complementing other EU instruments, supporting, in that sense, vulnerable consumers and fighting energy poverty.
This piece of legislation is at the nexus of the ‘Fit for 55’ package. We have to admit that coming to a consensus was not an easy task for this proposal and I would like to congratulate all colleagues involved in this file, since we are very much aware about the fact that this is about an exercise which requires a framework for building renovation, where cost effectiveness, local circumstances and also the diversity of our buildings need to be considered.
However, allow me to mention that by defining net—zero buildings, phasing out fossil fuel heating system in buildings by 2035 and if not feasible by 2040 at the latest, by ensuring also access to finance at favourable conditions, facilitating the deployment of financial instruments and innovative schemes, such as the European Renovation Loan or a European guarantee fund for building renovation, by finding a common ground on minimum energy performance standards, and by enhancing infrastructure for sustainable mobility, we finally achieved a compromise.
Commissioner Simson, dear colleagues, we have set a solid basis for the accelerating efforts under the renovation wave to at least double the annual renovation rate by 2030, while shifting towards decarbonised buildings in the next few decades.