Energy Efficient Mortgage Initiative Gains Strong National Support from Belgium

Brussels, 15 November 2017 – For immediate release

Today, the Energy Efficient Mortgages Action Plan (EeMAP) Initiative takes another concrete step forward with the second in a series of national Roundtable events, this time focussing on Belgium. The event, organised in Brussels in cooperation with the Flemish Construction Confederation (VCB), brings together experts from the Belgian and European banking, construction, valuation and engineering sectors with a strong interest in building energy efficiency and its financing.

Significantly, today’s Roundtable event will also be attended by representatives of the Cabinets of the Belgian Regional Energy Ministers, underlining the political support that EeMAP is garnering also at national level.

The event’s aim is to discuss how energy measurement calculations and asset performance documentation developed and deployed in Belgium can be scaled up to support the development of an Energy Efficient Mortgage product for Europe, which will be put to the test in a forthcoming EeMAP Pilot Phase.

The first EeMAP national case study, with a focus on Italy, was launched 13 November 2017 in Milan. Other national Roundtable events are in the pipeline for later this year and early in 2018.

Luca Bertalot, EeMAP Coordinator, commented:

“We are excited to see so much interdisciplinary support from Belgium for this national EeMAP case study. We are particularly encouraged by the strong political interest from Belgium in the Initiative. Exchanges of this kind between local and European stakeholders are invaluable for identifying and incorporating national best practices into the EeMAP framework at European level and, ultimately, for the long-term success of the Initiative.”

Ivo Van Bulck (Secretary General UPC/BVK; Director Commercial Banking Febelfin), commented:

“The Belgian credit sector is playing a leading role in this European social initiative. This kind of close cooperation between the construction industry, the credit sector and the political world is absolutely crucial if Belgium and Europe still want to pursue the environmental objectives set for 2050. The Belgian credit sector is also prepared to assume its responsibility for the timely achievement of those goals.”

Marc Dillen, Managing Director, Flemish Construction Federation, commented:

“The goal set forward by the Flemish government to make all homes energy efficient by 2050 is very ambitious. In order to achieve this goal, we need initiatives on the national level as well as on the EU level, such as EeMAP. A major challenge is to find long-term financing for home renovations, therefore we have developed our ReCalculator tool to provide an accurate estimation of the real energy savings after renovation.”

Johan Van Der Biest, General Manager, Wienerberger, commented:

“Renovation of the existing housing stock is key to reach the CO2 reduction targets. The payback lies in the combination of energy cost reductions and the increase of the total value (physically and aesthetically) of the property. The focus must be on financing the reduction of energy consumption and upgrading the fundamental quality of the building, since they define the value, and not the production of green energy in a property.”