Proceeding from the European Union's objective to decrease the necessity for primary energy by 20% as well as a large proportion of buildings in the EU energy consumption, amendments to the directive on energy efficiency of buildings were adopted.

 

Estonia will be most affected by amendments concerning the enhancement of energy use of existing buildings and the growth in the number of buildings with low energy use. According to the amendments, the EU countries will be obliged to implement further requirements upon alteration of existing buildings, i.e. when their boundaries are changed or their technical systems are renewed. Moreover, the directive envisages that the Member States must erect more buildings with low use of energy. Progressive enhancement of energy efficiency of new buildings will be necessary, as from the year of 2021 all new buildings must be with low energy use.

 

Following the EU objective of ensuring the free movement of products and improve their energy efficiency, amendments were adapted to the existing directive on energy, concerning the indication of energy and other recourses in energy-performance label and in single product description.  The purpose is to affix an energy-performance label with all the products affecting energy consumption (like household appliances).

 

The new labeling system, laid down with the new energy labeling directive, provides useful and comparable information to the consumer about the consumption of energy and other resources (e.g., water). Due to this, consumers have the opportunity to obtain more efficient and economical products with less usage costs; resulting savings will outweigh the difference in purchase price. Besides, an energy-performance label helps the manufacturers to position their products better in the market and generate income from the investments made for the commissioning of better and more innovative products.

 

In addition to the current scale showing the energy efficiency of a product (A-G), new classes of energy efficiency will be added (A+, A++, and A+++).