Within the next period, Mr. Csaba Borboly, president of Harghita County Council will elaborate a report on the topic of sustainable buildings. He was chosen to be a rapporteur in the Commission for Environment, Climate Change and Energy (ENVE) of the Committee of the Regions’, on the plenary meeting organized on 19th of June in Brussels. The president of Harghita County Council is permanent member of CoR since 2012, and besides the ENVE Commission, he is also member in the Commission for Education, Youth, Culture and Research (EDUC). This report will be first presented at the end of 2014, then, if it is accepted, by the ENVE Commission, at the plenary session planned to be held in the beginning of 2015.
The general objective of the European Commission’s initiation regarding the sustainable buildings lies in the endeavour to decrease the environmental effects of buildings by improving the resource-efficiency. Hence, the competitiveness between construction companies would be increased as well. For this very reason the general knowledge concerning the use of resources should be improved, the populations’ attention on the environmental effects of buildings should be raised, as well as informing campaigns shall be organized. Last but not least, a priority is also fallen on aiming the increase of the demand for nature-friendly buildings within the circle of the private sector, designers and public institutions.
As Mr. Csaba Borboly said, he will take into consideration the county level interests in the report, including the Modern Sekler house project of Harghita County Council, the energy strategy elaborated by the Harghita Energy Management Public Service. Furthermore, based on the economic development strategy of Harghita County Council, entitled Together for a stable future! he will put a great emphasis on the issue of renewable energy sources. As the county council president claimed, these direction lines will be followed within the planned draft opinion.
Based on the guide elaborated for CoR members, the rapporteurs are nominated for such documents on which the Committee of the Regions plans to elaborate an opinion. This can be legislative recommendation, press release, white or green paper, report or other requests coming from the three main European institutions (the European Commission, European Council and European Parliament). The concerned commission of the CoR decides how the report will be elaborated at its meetings. Accordingly, this decision is carried out by taking into account the significance of the given topic from the perspective of local and regional authorities, respectively based on consultations held with political coordinators. The nomination for the rapporteur status is a time-consuming responsibility, since in order to enhance the greatest impact as possible on political and institutional levels, the rapporteur has to be available before and after accepting the report, namely on the preparatory sessions, then afterwards regarding the activities concerning the elaborated report.
The most basic role of the CoR’s opinion is to provide recommendations and proposals for the EU policies and legal regulations. Thus, it has to communicate the opinions and concerns of the local and regional authorities, to present these in such a way as to be easily understood and followed by other institutions, as well as if necessary to modify the original proposals.
Every rapporteur has the possibility to choose an expert who provides help in the elaboration phase of the report (who can be the officer of the local and regional authority represented by the rapporteur, or an expert of the given topic). The expert is justified to offer help for the rapporteur in all the meetings and plenary sessions of the given commission of CoR, on which the concerned opinion is tackled. As well, the expert may accompany the rapporteur on the meetings organized with other European institutions and with representatives of concerned partners during the elaboration phase. However, on the concerned meetings and conferences the Committee of the Regions can be solely represented by the rapporteur, the expert cannot speak on CoR’s behalf.
More information on Mr. Csaba Borboly’s activity within the Committee of the Regions may be found at the following website: http://www.borbolycsaba.ro/en/committe-of-the-regions/.
Miercurea Ciuc, 19th of June 2014
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