As Member States are expected to deliver their renovation strategy by March next year, public consultation is now high on the agenda. National strategies can only be successful with the involvement of regional and local authorities, since they will be required to design and implement detailed action plans to deliver National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs). National renovation strategies should develop over time, taking account of new strategies at local and regional level, and therefore be reviewed and updated every three years.

The project ‘Our Buildings’, supported by the European Climate Initiative (EUKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), held several stakeholder’s consultations throughout July 2019 in cities in Romania and Bulgaria, gathering actors at municipal level from both the public and private sectors. In addition to building capacity at local level, these consultations aim to determine the various barriers and needs to the development and implementation of the strategies in Romania and Bulgaria.  In this framework, the partners have already published a guidance for public officers early 2019 as well as a template for developing national long term renovation strategies.

Stakeholder consultation in Sibiu, 4th July 2019

In Romania, the stakeholder consultations took place in six cities: Bacau, Satu Mare, Mizil, Sibiu, Bistrita, and Targoviste. All consultations brought up several common issues:

• Poorly managed financial funds;
• Lack of quality control during all phases of construction works and lack of monitoring to the finalised works because of not enough experience, time or trained staff;
• Lack of workforce – qualified or unqualified and no continuous learning;
• Lack of time for local authorities to review national legislation and guidelines for applying to structural funds;
• Lack of consideration for energy consumption measures during buildings’ design stage;
• Price over quality: Opting for cheaper options rather than the optimum price, resulting in non-lasing, poor quality materials;
• Lack of awareness and education on energy efficiency measures for buildings, leading occupants do not to use the new installed systems for reducing energy consumption;
• Need to develop public/private partnerships for public buildings renovation;
• Need to highlight energy performance indicators in tender documents.

Stakeholder consultation in Mizil, 16th July 2019

These consultations lay the ground for the following steps of the project and will help to develop implement efficient renovation strategies and climate plans. One of the key topics to be addressed in the next stages is the energy performance certificates (EPCs) for local public building stocks.

More news on the stakeholders consultations in Bulgaria will come soon!

Read more about the project: https://www.bpie.eu/national-initiatives/bpie-in-romania/renovating-our-buildings-in-bulgaria-and-romania/