{"id":462801,"date":"2026-08-20T15:26:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T13:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/08\/20\/case-green-ancora-tensioni-dal-parlamento-ue-nuove-richieste-di-piu-flessibilita-no-di-jorgensen\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T17:35:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T15:35:59","slug":"green-buildings-tensions-continue-the-eu-parliament-calls-for-greater-flexibility-but-jorgensen-says-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/08\/20\/green-buildings-tensions-continue-the-eu-parliament-calls-for-greater-flexibility-but-jorgensen-says-no\/","title":{"rendered":"Green buildings: tensions continue. The EU Parliament calls for greater flexibility, but Jorgensen says “no”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Let\u2019s press ahead with the refurbishment of buildings, without any fuss. The Directive on the energy performance of buildings<\/a>, better known as the directive on “green homes”<\/strong>, continues to spark debate in European politics and to provoke heated exchanges. This time, Liberal MEPs (RE), backed by signatures from members of the European People\u2019s Party (EPP) and the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), are calling for \u201cgreater flexibility\u201d in the implementation of the rules. This request has been met with opposition from the European Commission: \u201cThe directive already provides for considerable flexibility<\/strong>,\u201d states the Commission\u2019s Energy Commissioner, Dan Jorgensen<\/strong>, who, with his reply<\/a> effectively brings the matter to a close.
This cross-party question has reignited the never-ending dispute over a measure that continues to raise doubts, criticism, and discontent. Previously, opposition parties called for a reversal, particularly the Lega group in the European Parliament<\/a>\u2014including during the parliamentary vote that gave the go-ahead<\/a>, when the measure met opposition, particularly from conservatives (ECR) and Eurosceptics (ESN). Now, however, there is a whole new outcry\u2014this time entirely pro-European\u2014over the EU\u2019s agenda for green homes. <\/p>\n

The new calls to water down the text and the rules it contains have not fazed the Energy Commissioner in the slightest, and he insists: as it stands, the directive allows Member States to \u201cadapt the measures to the specific national context<\/strong>, including by granting exemptions that an unfavourable cost-benefit assessment may justify.\u201d None of these provisions justifies new flexibility measures. <\/p>\n

Nothing new, just another chapter in the equally delicate and turbulent saga of the rules governing green homes, which have already been the subject of a sweeping infringement procedure in which the European Commission took action against all 27 Member States<\/a> for failure to fully transpose the directive\u2014in what sounds like a mutiny. And this time, the passive resistance of national governments is compounded by fresh calls for a U-turn from the European Parliament, from the benches of those who are, in theory, “allies” of the Commission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Commissioner for Energy stands firm on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, but this time he faces a barrage of criticism from the Liberals (RE), backed by members of the EPP and S&D groups. \u201cThere is already ample room for manoeuvre\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":462766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25706],"tags":[26390,30592,26247,25886,33394],"class_list":["post-462801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-green-economy-en","tag-case-green-en","tag-dan-jorgensen-and","tag-building-en","tag-sustainability-en","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462802,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462801\/revisions\/462802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}