This workshop focused on the impact, compliance and control of energy legislations. Through a series of well structured country presentations, the view of various European associations, synthesis presentations and a panel discussion gave the participants a clear view as well as indications of interesting approaches.

More specifically, the workshop focused on the following issues:

• Evaluation of impact of national EPBD implementation on severity of requirements
  • The objective was to obtain a good overview to what extent the implementation of the EPBD by the individual MS did result in more severe requirements in terms of energy efficiency and indoor climate specifications AND whether there has been a widening of the type of requirements (other buildings, more global requirements, indoor climate requirements,…).
• Evaluation of handling of compliance and control in the different member states
  • The objective was to obtain a good overview about the direct and indirect market mechanisms contributing to respect of the regulations for new and existing buildings (excluding inspection issues):
    • Direct market mechanisms: e.g. handling of control by the responsible authority, inspections organised by the energy agencies of the MS, possibility (and use) of sanctions by government in case of non-compliance,…
    • Indirect market mechanisms: e.g. in some countries the market is organised as such that the role of specialised consultancy firms is important, that the large size of projects results in a better compliance, in other countries may the requirements by insurance companies result in more attention for energy regulations, also financial schemes (subsidies, fiscal deduction,…) may stimulate a better compliance,…
• Identification of interesting approaches and possible bottlenecks for compliance and control of regulations. Based on a collection of information from the member states, pros and cons of the different approaches were presented. This evaluation should be a major reference for the EC and MS when evaluating possibilities (and barriers) for obtaining better compliance with regulations.