The energy efficiency directive and the challenges for the Hellenic legislative process in times of crisis

摘要

The objective of this article is to present the basic axes of the recent Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency and to highlight the Member States' challenges during its implementation due to the economic crisis. The innovations it introduces, the new policies and the measures, which need to be adopted by Member States, as well as the seeming effectiveness of the Directive, are critically set out in the first part. In the second part, the Directive's dynamics is presented, in the sense of its implementation in specific geographical areas, such as Member States, which face aggravated financial problems. Greece constitutes a typical example of a state plagued by economic crisis. The issue whether this Directive can be implemented in such states and to what extent its objectives can be realized is critically analysed. The whole approach is made through a critical historical overview of the course of national legislation in the field of energy savings; shortcomings and gaps are detected; suggestions on necessary legislative initiatives are articulated. It should be noted that the present paper is based on literature mostly relating to primary sources (primary and secondary EU law, EU case law and Greek law) with a few review papers.