The house directive? A European heritage that would cost thousands of euros for every Italian family…
Isabella Tovaglieri she is a member of the Lega MEP, a member of the European Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE), a minority rapporteur for the new and controversial EPBD directive, for the energy efficiency of buildings, better known as the “housing directive” ”. Thursday 9 February you vote in the Commission.
THE INTERVIEW OF AFFARITALIANI.IT
Honorable Member, you have defined this provision as a ‘europa-patrimonial’. Isn’t that going to be excessive?
“Absolutely not, indeed it is probably simplistic. The directive risks being a drain on companies, workers, families in our country, which in the EU would be the most penalized by the housing directive. And this, compared to property, which is a tax that affects savings but does not affect assets, it would be much worse.Here there is an obligation to renovate linked to energy efficiency, as a result most Italian properties would lose the characteristics to be bought and sold.Let’s think of those who have a mortgage, the bank would lose the guarantee represented by the property, while on new mortgages for low-efficiency homes, banks could request more interest for the loan”.
A disturbing prospect. Once again, is the mantra “Europe asking us to do it” valid?
“This provision starts from afar, we have known for some time that the EU was going in that direction, favoring the ideology of its agenda green, to the concreteness of facing reality. We are all in favor of respect for the environment and energy efficiency, God forbid: but this is absolutely not the right direction to achieve that goal. This is why we are fighting the directive at every level. In method and in merit”.
What do you contest, on the merits?
“First of all, the fact that the specificity of the Italian economic system has not been taken into consideration, in which for most people the house represents the predominant part of their assets. Often they are the result of inheritance from their past and in many cases the owners – at the same time inhabitants – of the house do not have the economic possibility to face large renovation costs.So we contest the completely senseless and too close deadlines: it is unthinkable that the home owners are forced to dig into their wallets and spend huge amounts in such a short time”.
Is there also a method problem? The EU will have spoken with the representatives of the categories, to give birth to this proposal…
“Absolutely not, the construction sector, which is not only in difficulty and still grappling with the post-pandemic crisis, is also the reality that would most suffer the impact of the directive. They have not been in the least involved or even listened to. says a lot about the way this EU operates. It is absurd, and today we are not surprised to see all the trade associations on a war footing: we are talking to them and we have presented proposals for improvements precisely based on their needs”.
What are your proposals?
“We have presented about a hundred amendments. The same provision has been subjected to amendment proposals, this is very significant and shows that there are many critical issues. As a League, in agreement with our Identity and Democracy group, we ask for further derogations from those currently envisaged, especially for families with incomes that are too low to afford extremely costly renovations.Furthermore, we ask for the elimination of the so-called ‘renovation passport’, a bureaucratic and expensive measure for having the State and the EU look into the homes of Italians: we are for freedom, against any type of obligation, even against the obligation to install electric columns and bike spaces, with extremely expensive wiring, which should be left to the discretion of the owners and tenants, not decided by Brussels bureaucrats”.
What will happen now?
“The vote in the commission is scheduled for 9 February. The League has taken sides against this Euro-madness from the very first day and will vote ‘No’ with conviction. We also expect the other parties in the country to follow the route we traced out in the commission: the Italy must team up to defend its companies, its workers, its families. We are ready to give battle”.
Subscribe to the newsletter