EU nears deal on buildings eco-standards from 2018

Bikers pass 17th century houses on the Vijzelgracht next to a construction site of the Amsterdam metro in Amsterdam June 30, 2009.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - New energy economy standards could kick in for all new public buildings in the European Union from 2018, and for all new homes and offices from 2020, according to a draft negotiating document.

The new policy is expected to have a significant long-term impact on the EU's bill for gas imports, worth tens of billions of euros each year.

"This is a hugely important piece of legislation because 40 percent of final energy use in Europe is in buildings," said environment campaigner Arianna Vitali Roscini of WWF.

"We would have preferred that all new buildings have net zero energy use from 2015, but at least we have a date," she added.

Final changes to the European Union's "Energy Performance of Buildings Directive" will be worked out at negotiations on November 17 between representatives of the EU's 27 member states and the European Parliament.

But several key compromises have emerged already in the document, seen by Reuters on Friday.

The Parliament originally proposed that from the end of 2018, all new buildings would have to reduce their carbon footprint to zero. But member states said the goal was over-ambitious and impractical.

"Instead, all public buildings built after 2018 must be low-energy, and after 2020 that will apply to all new buildings -- homes, restaurants, offices, schools, everywhere," said a source close to the negotiations.

"We're still fine-tuning the exact definition of low-energy, but it's clear it can't be the same for Finland as it is for Cyprus. There will be guidance on how member states calculate low-energy to take account of heating, cooling and hot water."

People selling or renting a house will also have to include the property's energy efficiency rating in advertisements so potential occupants can make informed choices, but no date has yet been set for that.

The policy has received little attention as it has weaved its way through the EU's complex political process, but it has the potential to make deep cuts into the level of European gas imports.

A similar EU plan to renovate about 15 million European buildings over the next decade is expected to slash back oil and gas imports by about 20 billion euros [ID:nL9513781].

The European Union's executive arm is also thinking of proposing binding energy saving goals for EU countries in the next few months.

That prospect was supported on Friday by Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the International Energy Agency.

"Binding efficiency targets are one of our important recommendations to the European Commission," he told reporters during a visit to the Commission. "The cheap energy age is over."

(Reporting by Pete Harrison, editing by Timothy Heritage)