18 June 2015: The European Commission (EC) has referred Greece to the EU Court of Justice for failing to transpose the Energy Efficiency Directive, under which certain energy savings targets must be met during the period between 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2020. EU member States must achieve these targets by using energy efficiency obligations schemes or other policy measures to drive energy efficiency improvements in households, buildings, industry and transport.

Under the Energy Efficiency Obligations Schemes, companies must implement measures to ensure energy savings at the user level by, for example, providing advice on installing better insulation or offering grants for replacing old windows. Member States were required to transpose the Directive’s obligations by 5 June 2014.

Other Directive requirements include: energy audits for big companies every four years; increased consumer rights regarding metering and billing energy consumption; renovating at least 3% of central government buildings every year; and energy-efficient public purchasing.

In February 2015, the Commission sent “a reasoned opinion” to Greece requesting it to notify the Commission of transposition measures for the Directive. However, to date, no legislation transposing the Directive into national law has been adopted.

Subsequently, the EC referred Greece to the Court and proposed a daily penalty of over €29,000, which takes into account the duration and the seriousness of the failure to transpose. The Court will determine the final amount of the daily penalty, which cannot exceed the Commission’s proposal.

The EC has also given a final warning to Germany to ensure the Directive’s full transposition. Germany has two months to comply, after which the Commission may decide to refer it to the EU Court of Justice and request financial penalties.

A total of 27 member States have received a formal letter for failing to fully transpose the Directive by the June 2014 deadline. So far, the Commission has issued eight opinions to member States where full transposition has yet to be achieved (Austria, Portugal, Bulgaria, Croatia, Ireland, Romania, Latvia and Germany) and has referred two member States to the Court (Hungary in March 2015 and now Greece).

The Energy Efficiency Directive is a key instrument to achieve the EU target, which aims for a 20% cut in Europe’s annual primary energy consumption by 2020. It establishes binding measures to help the EU reach this target and proposes measures to increase efforts to use energy more efficiently at all stages of the energy chain. [EU Press Release] [Energy Efficiency Directive]