The rapporteur consultations on the European Commission’s communication on sustainable buildings continued during Monday, the 22nd September in Brussels at the Committee of the Regions. Together with László Csák expert, Borboly Csaba discussed the issue with representatives of the Committee of Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the Directorate General for Environment (DG ENV) and the Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry (DG ENTR) of the European Commission.
Csaba Borboly drew attention to the importance of using local knowledge and local materials, and urged to include this in the measures aimed at sustainable constructions. The costs will be more efficient and the environmental impact of processing of wood can thus be reduced. All these aspects are in accordance with the Harghita County Council’s programs aimed at protecting traditional village and modernize old houses, mainly programs that aim to use local raw materials. European regulations must consider the specificities of different regions, these consultations provide opportunities for expressing the region’s interests and to draw attention to it. Representatives of both European institutions agreed with his assertion, in which he recalled that on this subject the European Commission issued a communication, and according to that, there is need for a single indicator system to collate the various issues related to the sustainability of the construction industry. This will allow comparability and provide consumers and policy makers with easier access to reliable and consistent information.
Rapporteurs are appointed for documents on which the Committee of the Regions decides to issue an opinion. These documents can be legislative proposals, Communications, White Papers, Green Papers, reports or other referrals submitted to the CoR by one of the three main European institutions, i.e. the European Commission, the Council of the EU or the European Parliament. The decision to issue an opinion is taken by the competent commission during regular meetings, having regard to the degree of relevance of thesubject matter to local and regional authorities and having consulted the political coordinators.
The most fundamental role of a CoR opinion is to issue recommendations about how the EU should shape its policy and laws. A CoR opinion should therefore express the concerns of local and regional authorities and should present them in a way that the other institutions can easily identify the key messages and follow the argumentation and reasoning of the CoR and make changes to the original proposal where appropriate. The more precise the CoR opinion, referring to concrete local and regional experience, the easier it is for the CoR to communicate its messages and objectives.
You can find more information about the topic at the web page of: http://www.borbolycsaba.ro/en/committe-of-the-regions/
22th September 2014
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