Legal Briefing: The possible integration of financial and fiscal provisions in the Directive 2002/91/EC on the Energy Performance of Buildings

The briefing concludes that the European Parliament's proposals to require Member States to implement national financial incentives and for the Commission to propose Community financial instruments are legally acceptable, though they may face political opposition due to perceived infringements on national sovereignty.

• The proposal for Member States to implement at least two financial and fiscal measures from a specified list (Annex III b) is legally acceptable and does not contradict the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.
• The proposed national measures are compatible with State aid rules because they target building owners rather than specific enterprises, meaning they do not distort competition or affect trade between Member States.
• The integration of these measures is justified under the 'wide formulation' of Community implied powers, as financial and fiscal instruments are necessary to achieve the EPBD's objective of environmental protection.
• The proposed requirements for Member States respect the nature of a directive under Article 249 of the EC Treaty because they leave national authorities a choice of measures and methods of implementation.
• The proposal for the European Commission to bring forward legislative proposals for Community financial instruments (Article 9.a.3) is legally acceptable as it requests potential new activities rather than amending existing acts.
• Despite legal acceptability, the provisions are likely to meet strong political opposition from Member States because they touch upon areas traditionally considered national competence.
• To reduce political opposition, the author suggests softening the language of Article 9.a.1 and Annex III b by making the list of measures non-exhaustive using terms like 'may' or 'shall consider'.
• The author recommends clarifying the wording of Article 9.a.3 to give the Commission more flexibility in choosing which legislative acts to consider when preparing financial proposals.

APA

Toporek, M. (2009). Legal Briefing: The possible integration of financial and fiscal provisions in the Directive 2002/91/EC on the Energy Performance of Buildings. ClientEarth. https://www.clientearth.org/media/h0sbrulk/legal-briefing-the-possible-integration-of-financial-and-fiscal-provisions-in-the-epbd-ce-en.pdf

Chicago

Toporek, Marta. Legal Briefing: The possible integration of financial and fiscal provisions in the Directive 2002/91/EC on the Energy Performance of Buildings. ClientEarth, 2009. https://www.clientearth.org/media/h0sbrulk/legal-briefing-the-possible-integration-of-financial-and-fiscal-provisions-in-the-epbd-ce-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Toporek |first1=Marta |title=Legal Briefing: The possible integration of financial and fiscal provisions in the Directive 2002/91/EC on the Energy Performance of Buildings |publisher=ClientEarth |date=10 October 2009 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/h0sbrulk/legal-briefing-the-possible-integration-of-financial-and-fiscal-provisions-in-the-epbd-ce-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{toporek2009legal, author = {Toporek, Marta}, title = {{Legal Briefing: The possible integration of financial and fiscal provisions in the Directive 2002/91/EC on the Energy Performance of Buildings}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2009}, month = oct, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/h0sbrulk/legal-briefing-the-possible-integration-of-financial-and-fiscal-provisions-in-the-epbd-ce-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }