Green houses slow, European law without transposition and Italian plan yet to be sent
Italy has not yet sent the draft of its national restructuring plan to Brussels. The key document for the implementation of the Energy performance of buildings directive (the green house directive) has not yet been delivered to the EU Commission. The deadline for transmission has not yet expired (it is set for 31 December) but Italy is certainly not rushing to implement the principles of the directive in its system. Not least because, at the same time, the preliminary stage of an infringement procedure has been opened against us, again linked to the Epbd, this time concerning tax incentives for boilers. And, in the meantime, the European law has not started the transposition of the legislation.
On 1 January 2025, in fact, the directive's first deadline expired: from that date, all incentives of a financial nature for the installation of boilers fuelled by fossil gases, such as methane, are prohibited. Italy has cancelled tax deductions, but has maintained a form of contribution in favour of these appliances, within the Conto termico 2.0 (a measure being renewed, this time with the elimination of incentives for boilers). For this reason, a few days ago it received a letter of formal notice, in which the EU Commission demands full compliance with that provision. And this is not the only point in respect of which the implementation of the Case Green directive could prove problematic.
By next 31 December, member countries must, in fact, send their national restructuring plans to Brussels. The Epbd sets some long-term objectives, linked to cutting the average consumption of real estate: a 16% reduction by 2030 and 20-22% by 2035, with full decarbonisation by 2050. How these targets are to be declined in individual countries, with respect to the specificities of different real estate assets, is a matter to be addressed in the restructuring plans. States will send them by the end of the year, mapping the situation of their real estate, and then receive a response from the Commission. By the end of 2026, this will lead to the final version of the plan, which will accompany us on the long road to implementing the directive. Italy, for now, has not yet sent its draft to Brussels.
And there is another Epbd-related deadline on which our country is struggling to get going. By 29 May 2026, exactly two years after the entry into force of the directive, Italy must complete its transposition. The European delegation bill for 2025, approved last summer in the Council of Ministers and then forwarded to Parliament, did not, however, contain any reference to the Epbd. And even in the parliamentary passage through the Chamber of Deputies, which will be completed this week, the Case Green directive was not, for now, included among the regulations to be transposed. The uncertainty of the passage through the House remains: on this point, two opposition amendments (signed by Marco Simiani of the PD and Agostino Santillo of the M5s) have been tabled that introduce a delegation for transposition.
