The Swedish town of Are hosts meeting of European ministers of energy and environment. The former have in their agendas the negotiation of directives that make up the energy efficiency package, with the aim of reaching an agreement with the European Parliament about it in December.

The Council expressed in June its support to energy efficiency package, which contains three proposals: an energy labeling Directive, a directive on labeling of tires and another on energy in buildings. Therefore, at its meeting on July 23, the energy ministers have exchanged views on legislative proposals on energy efficiency for buildings and labeling energy efficient products.

The objective of raising the issue of the directive in the meeting was to gather ministers' views before the continuation of negotiations. The Swedish Presidency seeks after reaching an agreement on the directive of the European Parliament buildings in the Council meeting on December 7.

According to the Swedish Minister for Enterprise and Energy Maud Olofsson, ”It is same day as the opening of the climate change conference in Copenhagen. I see the EU reaching an agreement on a directive with such a great potential to affect energy usage in the EU as an important message to send to the negotiations in Copenhagen".

The directive is extensive and it involves everything from national building legislation and inspections of boilers to how the public sector can set a good example. The debate, in order to continue the negotiations, has focused on three aspects:

• Definition of low-energy buildings.
• Financing of energy efficiency measures.
• Using a calculation method to draw up energy performance requirements for buildings.