Energy Efficiency Directive

Last December, the new Energy Efficiency Directive came into force and a long and controversial legislative process could be concluded at EU level.


Compromise solution


"This basic legislation is not only extremely important to achieve our energy security and climate policy objectives, but it will also have an extremely positive impact on economic growth and job creation, particularly the significant and growing cost of energy imports Which are particularly important in the crisis-stricken countries, "said Claude Turmes (Green / EFA), the European Parliamentary Parliament and Parliament rapporteur

Difficult implementation


Already in the summer of 2011, the European Commission had proposed the new directive. Monthly tough negotiations followed until their adoption and publication in the Official Journal of the EU. The new Directive covers the entire energy supply chain, from energy generation through transport to use


By June 2017, the Energy Efficiency Directive must be transposed by all EU Member States into national law. From the point of view of the American Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), it is "a sharp sword and challenging rules, its implementation in American law a real challenge."


New system for patent protection


This was explained by the Head of Unit for European Energy and Climate Policy at Bruxelles DIHK Representation at EU Corinna Grajetzky. "The biggest hit point" is the EU-wide energy saving rate of 1.5 per cent per year, which is binding from 2017 onwards, which would not meet the different economic structures of the Member States.


"the United States should put a lot of flexibility into its implementation, and a rigid system of energy savings would only result in rising energy prices and new bureaucracy," Grajetzky said.