On Tuesday, the European Parliament approved the building energy efficiency directive, i.e. the regulation promoting the renovation of buildings, in the final vote, the member of the European Parliament Jana Toom (Centre Party) voted against it.
“This directive lacks an adequate impact analysis because there are very clear time frames and imagine what will happen in the construction sector if the entire European Union – 27 member states – starts building and renovating at the same time. What kind of price increase does this mean for the construction sector?” Jana Toom said today in Vikerradio’s “Reporter Hour”.
“Another fact that increases uncertainty is that the European Commission will only come out with a financing plan in May 2025. Why do we have to support a half-baked initiative with no financial backing? When Taavi Aas was Minister of Economy, a renovation plan was made for Estonia and its cost is similar to that resulting from the directive – two years ago it was 30 billion euros. Today, the government says that it somehow scraped together 400 million. The European Commission tells us that we can use the surpluses we have left from other funds to renovate. Since Estonia is relatively good at using money, the amount of free funds we have is very limited.”
Among the Estonian MPs, only Marina Kaljurand and Sven Mikser (S&D) voted for the directive, who also received sharp criticism from Riho Terras (Isamaa). “I understand that the social democrats are doing everything in order to impose some kind of additional burden on the people of Estonia in the current difficult situation we are in today in terms of security, where our economy is falling, taxes are rising,” said Riho Terras.
Jana Toom reacted quite sharply: “Riho Terras is the only Estonian MP who is a full member of the relevant committee, but who did not make any amendments to this directive and was also absent from the vote where he could have voted against. And now to attack someone else whose worldview this directive corresponds to is not pretty, Riho!” scolded the politician of the Central Party.
Later, Jana Toom explained why she thought it necessary to specify it. “The way MEPs present themselves in the Estonian media is of course important. However, our work is elsewhere and if we do not use the opportunity to really influence matters important to Estonia in the European Parliament, we must honestly admit this,” said Jana Toom.
