EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission on Wednesday (3 December) announced that low-income Europeans are set to win new financing for solar panels attached to their homes, better insulation in their walls and fit their windows with double-glazing, but ultimately no new funds have been attached to the proposal. As part of its proposed stimulus package to boost the union's wilting economy, the EU executive said it would co-finance national and local schemes investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy measures in poor households. But despite the fanfare, there will be no new EU spending. The move is simply a rule change that potentially unblocks obstacles to existing funds being spent on such refurbishments. "There is no additional EU spending," regional policy spokesperson Dennis Abbott told EUobserver.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission on Wednesday (3 December) announced that low-income Europeans are set to win new financing for solar panels attached to their homes, better insulation in their walls and fit their windows with double-glazing, but ultimately no new funds have been attached to the proposal.
As part of its proposed stimulus package to boost the union's wilting economy, the EU executive said it would co-finance national and local schemes investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy measures in poor households.
But despite the fanfare, there will be no new EU spending. The move is simply a rule change that potentially unblocks obstacles to existing funds being spent on such refurbishments.
"There is no additional EU spending," regional policy spokesperson Dennis Abbott told EUobserver.
Home energy efficiency is good for the economy in the short term (construction work), in the long run (lower energy spending) and is good for the environment too (less waste of resources). It should be a non brainer to do this on a large scale. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
