Energy efficiency: EC asks Bulgaria to get in line with EU legislation
The European Commission (EC) has formally requested Bulgaria and Hungary to ensure the full transposition of the bloc’s 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive, the EC said on November 26 2014.
Under the 2012 directive, EU countries must achieve certain energy savings over the period from January 1 2014 till December 31 2020.
They have to do this by using energy efficiency obligations schemes or other targeted policy measures to drive energy efficiency improvements in households, industry and transport sectors.
Other requirements include energy audits for big companies every four years, increased rights for consumers regarding metering and billing of their energy consumption, renovation of at least three per cent of central government buildings annually and energy efficient public purchasing.
The EC said that it had sent a reasoned opinion to Bulgaria and Hungary asking them to notify it all their transposition measures for the directive, which had to be transposed into national law by June 5 2014.
“If the member states do not comply with their legal obligation within two months, the Commission may decide to refer them to the Court of Justice,” the EC said.
In July 2014 the EC started infringement procedures against 24 EU member states (all except Cyprus, Italy, Malta and Sweden) that had not notified the Commission of all national measures transposing the directive into national law.
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