The draft opinion, which will be penned on sustainable buildings for the Committee of the Regions (CoR) from the initiative of Csaba Borboly was discussed at the Miercurea Ciuc County Hall on August 27th. The president of Harghita County Council, Borboly Csaba was elected rapporteur on the subject of sustainable buildings in the Committee of the Regions during the Environment, Climate Change and Energy Commission’s (ENVE) meeting held in Brussels on 19th June.
At the consultation were present the members of urban planning committee from Harghita county, the expert of the subject, László Csák, Csongor Incze, the vice-president of the institution, and the president, Csaba Borboly.
The general objective of the Commission's initiative for sustainable buildings is to reduce the environmental impact of the buildings by improving resource efficiency. Therefore appears as a need to improve the general knowledge related to resource usage, the attention of the public should be drawn on the environmental impacts of the buildings and it would also be useful to organize dissemination and information campaigns on this issue. The demand of ecological buildings should be increased in private sector, amongst the architects and in public institutions.
At the meeting, Csaba Borboly presented the activities of the rapporteurs and the process of the preparation of a draft opinion. In his view, it is important to prepare a report on this subject, because the legislative changes which can appear as the effect of the report could significantly affect the construction industry of Harghita county and the protection of village image.
- Many of our ideas correspond with the ones stated in the Communication of the European Commission, but with this report we can strengthen our voice in the EU. Of course, the rapporteur should also take into consideration the opinions of other countries - said the president.
László Csák explained that in the construction industry a new way of approach can be experienced, and this change can be increasingly experienced at the level of legislation in the case of sustainable buildings, in terms of their cost and energy efficiency. This can give a huge boost in the industry of construction, and the regions which are primer regions in logging and wood processing are the major winners of the new communal regulations. So the building firms, building materials manufacturers of Harghita county have to be prepared for this change because a great opportunity is ahead of them. Csák merely drew attention to the situation of the absurd constructions - such as cubic wooden houses – that can be built, if only the criteria of sustainability is taken into consideration without urban planning or aesthetic considerations.
The same warning was mentioned by the architect Ernő Bogos, who proposed the inclusion of village image protection Charta prepared a few years ago into the draft opinion. According to him an architect should be included whenever there is a European Union project evaluation. However, it would also be important to educate young people and he urges the establishment of architectural faculty at the Sapientia University, in which a researcher group would focus and specifically deal with the wooden architecture. In addition education in this theme should be beneficial in secondary and vocational schools.
According to the vice-president Csongor Incze taking into consideration the opinion of the urban expertise committee would imply additional costs, which should be compensated by reducing the own contribution percentage, or with the reduction of taxes for a couple of years.
Chief architect Otília Fülöp sees a big opportunity for village image protection in the change of EU legislation on constructions, but according to her, attention should be focused on how energy efficient buildings influence people’s health and human body (for example the bad air in totally isolated schools, where students learn can have a negative impact on their performance)
Borboly Csaba is an active member since October 2012, working in Education, Youth, Culture and Research (EDUC) and Environment, Climate Change and Energy (ENVE) commissions. He will present his opinion on the subject at the end of 2014 in commission meeting, and if it will be voted, he will present it also during a plenary session, taking place at the beginning of 2015. Until then, during the months of July and August 2014 debates will be organized on national and international level. In October he will present his working document in Italy and the draft opinion should be finished in November in order to be adopted by the Committee of the Regions in December.
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 fiind more information about the topic at the web page of: http://www.borbolycsaba.ro/en/committe-of-the-regions/
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