Eastern blocs need facelift

Date: 20/10/05

If EU founding countries are starting to get cold feet as the buildings directive deadline looms, the ten new member states might find it even harder to bring their building stock up to scratch.

Recent research from renewable energy consultants Ecofys says decades of communist rule have left eight of the ten new member states in urgent need of "massive investment programmes" to speed up energy efficient building and renovation.

Ecofys found that, with the exception of Malta and Cyprus, the new member states use 25% more energy per square metre of buildings than the old member states. Unsurprisingly, as the largest country Poland emits the most CO2 from buildings - more than twice as much as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia combined.

National ministers across the former Communist states have acknowledged that something must be done, particularly to upgrade the large number of high-rise urban apartment blocks. Ecofys recommends supporting energy-efficient building products through a combination of low interest loans, cash bonuses and reduced value-added tax (VAT).

With the cost of meeting the EU directive's requirements in the new member states put by Ecofys at EUR 44 billion by 2010, former communist countries have their work cut out to put their housing stock in order.

Article takes a look the former Communist EU Member States have with energy efficient building and renovation.