site.btaEnergy Efficiency of Buildings Is Priority in European Policy: MEP Radan Kanev

Radan Kanev, MEP from the European People's Party (EPP) group, attended online Thursday a forum on opportunities for the construction sector, which is part of the "Architectural Building Week" taking place at the Inter Expo Center in Sofia. “Energy efficiency of buildings is a priority in European policy. I hope this will also be the case in Bulgarian politics,” he said. Among the participants were also Toma Pavlov from the EC Reform and Investment Task Force, and Dora Yankova, Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Public Works.

According to Kanev, energy efficiency of buildings is one of the few policies at the moment that can achieve several priority effects at the same time. In his view, it is a primary social policy, it is directly linked to the policy for economic competitiveness, it is a policy for geopolitical independence, and it supports efforts to combat climate change.

"The policy on energy efficiency of the building stock is one of the few that are truly uncontroversial," Kanev added.

He stressed the fact that relevant European legislation has been adopted and is not expected to be revised any time soon. Therefore, the question here for him is how successfully it will be implemented by member states.

Raising the subject of the commitment of national governments, the MEP said that he was pleased to see that the priority of energy efficiency in buildings was permanent and did not depend on who was governing Bulgaria.

However, he said the debate remains on the type of policy needed to achieve the renovation of a large percentage of buildings in Bulgaria and to have an impact on at least 50% of Bulgarian citizens.

Radan Kanev expressed his disagreement with the model of fully grant financing of building renovation.

The forum is organized by the Bulgarian Construction Chamber (BCC) in cooperation with the initiative "Renovate Bulgaria", "EnEffect", "CleanTech", the European Digital Innovation Hub in the construction sector, and the BCC’s branch for construction qualification.