Minister of Construction Geywitz against the obligation to renovate individual buildings

Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz wants to prevent plans at EU level to oblige individual houses to be renovated. "As Minister of Construction, I will not support any proposal that requires technical renovation for individual buildings," said the SPD politician to "Bild am Sonntag". "And I assume that other EU countries don't either. Instead, we must quickly agree on another method of how the building sector can better achieve its climate targets.”

In the middle of the month, the EU Parliament voted for stricter requirements for the energy efficiency of buildings. Specifically, residential buildings should at least achieve energy efficiency class E by 2030 and energy efficiency class D by 2033. Similar to household appliances, the efficiency should be given on a scale from A to G.

With the vote in the EU Parliament, however, the plans have not yet been decided. The EU states and the European Parliament still have to find a compromise before the guidelines can come into force. The project has been the subject of controversy because of the potential high costs for homeowners.

When asked about a possible compromise, Geywitz said: "It's about a neighborhood approach." According to this, not every single building has to reduce its CO₂ emissions, but a neighborhood as a whole, i.e. a district or a village. "That means: The well-insulated new buildings in the residential area ensure that the old buildings do not have to be renovated immediately because not every house is considered individually."

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