BPIE organised a workshop April 4 in Bucharest to present an analysis of the Romanian building stock to a large group of stakeholders including the Minister of Energy, Razvan Nicolescu, who reiterated that energy efficiency is a priority and launched a call for action to all participants to actively contribute to the development of an ambitious renovation strategy and its implementation.

The event was dedicated to the Romanian renovation strategy and included scenarios and policy recommendations. In the context of the IEE project ENTRANZE, various policy sets and pathways to 2030 for the renovation of existing buildings were modelled.

This event aimed to support Romania in the process Member States are now dealing with, as they have to report their national renovation strategies by April 30, 2014 complying with Article 4 of the EED, entitled “Building Renovation”.

The event was an opportunity for stakeholders to learn about potential EU funding opportunities and approaches in other MS (e.g. to know the French experience in elaborating and implementing a renovation policy), presented by guest speakers from the EU Commission and the French “Plan Bâtiment Durable”.

For a more comprehensive picture, representatives from the Romanian Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration (MDRAP) presented the current Thermal Rehabilitation Programme for residential buildingsand the upcoming developments relating to the investment programme using European Funds for 2014-2020. Cristian Stamatiade, General Manager at MDRAP, shared his concerns about recent seismic activity in Romania and the need to firstly consolidate buildings before proceeding with renovation works. He also underlined the need for Romanian authorities to strike a balance between financing means and the impact of these rehabilitation measures.