‘Forced renovations’ – Will the EU force homeowners into expensive energy efficiency?

No, the villa owners will not receive the half-million bill

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The Sweden Democrats seem to have decided what the EU election campaign will be about. During the fall, both MEPs and Riksdag members repeated the same talking point: the EU will force Swedish homeowners to undertake expensive renovations.

“Social democratic forced renewals,” as Martin Kinnunen (SD) cleverly put it in the Riksdag EU debate on Wednesday.

There is no law

It’s a good discussion point and usually the kind of question that can get people engaged in EU politics. There’s just one problem – what Martin Kinnunen is saying in the Swedish Parliament is not true.

The proposal he is talking about is called the “Directive on the energy performance of buildings” and is now being negotiated between the European Commission, the European Parliament and the member states. There is no team yet. But what we know for sure is that there will be no “forced renovations” of private homes.

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What is most likely is agreement on the percentage of improvement in average energy use in buildings. It appears that negotiations will be completed in December at the earliest, and if not, likely in the spring.

Old numbers

Martin Kinnunen stands in the speaker’s chair and says that a Swedish homeowner with a 100-square-meter villa may have to pay half a million dollars in renovation costs if the European Union Commission approves her proposal. He got the number from one Calculation Made by the National League of Villagarnas.

The problem is that Villagarna’s calculations are based on the position of the European Parliament. It was also introduced in September this year – before the German government changed its position and backed a more moderate proposal.

Reducing electricity costs

If so Nor anything proposed by the European Union Commission Or a finished group Member States – whose approval is needed for the Directive to become a reality – agree in principle that they do not wish to set any specific requirements for private housing, but rather want to introduce more general improvements at the national level.

The purpose of this legislation is to reduce energy consumption in the European Union, for the sake of the climate but also to eliminate dependence on Russian gas. In the long term, the idea is that this will lower electricity prices.

Swedes as homeowners need not worry. On the other hand, they must prepare themselves for the perfect wave of intimidating propaganda that will overwhelm them during the EU election campaign in the spring.

I’m just getting started.

What do you think of the Swedish debate on the European Union? What will the election campaign be like? Talk to Susanna Kierkegaard about the text. The live chat starts at 09.00, but you can ask questions already.